Bitcoin Mining Firm Iris Energy’s Stock Surges Post Hash Rate Boost Plans

• Iris is nearing completion of phase 1 of its 600MW plant in Childress, Texas.
• IREN stock price rose 21.1% on the day after the announcement of its growth ambitions.

Iris Energy (IREN), a Bitcoin mining company listed on the NASDAQ, stated on Tuesday that it intends to increase its hash rate capacity by 63%, from 5.5 EH/s to 9.1 EH/s by the beginning of 2024. Moreover, Iris is nearing completion of phase 1 of its 600MW plant in Childress, Texas. This includes the construction of 80MW of data center space.

The business said in a press statement that its short-term focus remains on data center construction. With “flexibility on timing for miner purchases,” depending on available finance and current market circumstances.

Iris’s stock price rose 21.1% on the day after the announcement of its growth ambitions. From $3.55 to $4.14, giving the business a YTD gain of 247%. As predicted in February, when the company announced plans to roughly treble its capacity from 2.0 EH/s, Iris’s current hash rate capacity is 5.6 EH/s.

Legal Tussle

Moreover, in November, the company cut capacity by 3.6 EH/s. Because it had to shut down several units serving as security for $103 million in loans.

Iris claims the loan provider is currently looking at legal options. The lender requested last week that any further Bitcoin mining revenues made by Iris be used as collateral to safeguard its lending facilities in a hearing before the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

Phase 2 of the mining company’s infrastructure buildout is on hold as it awaits “additional long-lead items,” which are projected to unleash approximately 13.6 EH/s1 of data center capacity. Iris is exploring expanding into “energy intensive compute applications,” like AI, because of its ready access to inexpensive, renewable energy and massive data center capacity.