Cipher’s Crypto Mining Expansion Plan Includes Over 16K Miners

US-based crypto miner Cipher Mining has announced that it will acquire 16,700 new miners for Bitcoin (BTC) mining in its latest press release. The agreement with Canaan, a Chinese computer hardware manufacturer, will deliver the mentioned number of Avalon A1466 miners in Q2 2024. Ordered miners will be installed in its Bear and Chief facilities.

Both Facilities Will Get Equal Expansion

Both the data centers will receive an expansion of 30 megawatts (MW) each, making the move equalling 60 MW. Recently, the company purchased 37,396 units of Bitmain Antminer T21 miners for nearly $100 Million. Their announcement revealed the crypto miner has an option to acquire 45,706 miners.

“We are pleased to announce we have finalized and funded the plans for initial 30 MW expansions in the second quarter at each of our Bear and Chief joint venture facilities,” Cipher Mining CEO Tyler Page said. “We are pleased to announce we have finalized and funded the plans for initial 30 MW expansions in the second quarter at each of our Bear and Chief joint venture facilities.”

Bitcoin halving, an event affecting mining rewards and difficulty, is due this year and institutional miners are either updating or adding new machines to stay ahead of the curve. As of now, the Bitcoin network rewards a miner 6.25 BTC for adding one block to the blockchain. It will be slashed by half after April 2024.

Tyler continues, “We are also very excited to execute our second miner purchase and expand our relationship with Canaan, and happy to have done so at this point in the machine market cycle and on very favorable terms.” He added, “The Canaan machines we purchased last year are among the best performing miners in our fleet, especially in the Texas summer heat, and we look forward to adding another 2.5 EH/s of their machines to our joint venture data centers in Texas with this purchase.”

At the time of writing, the company shares were trading at a market value of $3.93. CIFR, a ticker for its shares, has lost over 30 percent since December 27, 2023. A major loss appeared a couple of days after with the stock plunging by 14 percent in a day. As of now, shares appear to have started to perform again given that they have gained five percent in the pre-market.

Cipher Mining acquired a new site in Texas dubbed Black Pearl last month. Tyler expected it to become the largest of their existing sites. However, the CEO explained that they may deploy “mining rigs at the site in a little more than a year.”

The race to mine BTC is likely to see heat as institutional miners are preparing their fleet to get the best out of the situation as the halving arrives. The last available update shows the company currently holds 553 Bitcoin in its portfolio of assets.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.