One of the Canadian bitcoin mining firms Iris Energy has raised its mining capacity by 25%, to stand at 7.0 exahashes per second (EH/s), just before the upcoming Bitcoin halving event due on April 2024.
The company managed this by purchasing an additional 7,000 of the Latest S21 Miners from Bitmain, which cost $19.6m. Iris will give $18.7 million to Bitmain as a prepayment and the remaining 15%, equivalent to $2.9 will be settle in a year after shipment.
The expansion will be financed by using the existing capital sources such as $64m Cash Reserves by iris.
To put it simply, mining capability matters for getting Bitcoin rewards, with the company having high mining capability standing to earn more Bitcoin. Following this news, Iris Energy’s shares on the NASDAQ (ticker: IREN) rose by 9.5%.
Iris Energy had originally planned to meet a 9.1 EH/s target by April 2024 but has since upped it to 9.4 EH/s. They are also watching for other hardware chances in the market.
As for the Bitcoin halving in April of 2024, it may result in lower mining rewards which could affect the viability of some mining companies. But on the other hand, it might just start a Bitcoin bull market making it more profitable for the industry in terms of dollars.
Similarly, other major mining companies such as Blockstream, Riot, and CleanSpark are also increasing their mining activities in preparation for the Bitcoin halving, so as to remain competitive in this emerging market.
Also Read: Iris Energy Invest $10M in 248 NVIDIA GPUs for Generative AI
