CleanSpark Acquires $40.5M Worth of New Mining Machines

• Bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark has purchased 12,500 brand-new units of the Antminer S19 XP BTC mining machines.
• The acquisition of these machines cost around $40.5 million, or around $23 per terahash, which is lower than the market rate.
• The total combined hashrate generated by the 12,500 machines amounts to 1.76 exahashes per second.
• The purchase ensures that the firm will meet and potentially exceed its year-end target of 16 exahashes per second.

Crypto mining, an activity that required solving complex problems to validate a blockchain transaction, took a hit during the China crackdown of 2021 and then, during the 70% collapse in the price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC). While many mining firms filed for bankruptcy or laid off employees to cut operational costs, CleanSpark, a Bitcoin infrastructure and mining firm based in the United States, has announced the acquisition of 12,500 brand-new units of the Antminer S19 XP Bitcoin mining machines worth $40.5 million.

As per the official announcement from CleanSpark, the acquisition of these Bitcoin mining machines cost around $40.5 million, or around $23 per terahash, which, as per the firm, is lower than the current average market price

It was revealed that the Antminer S19 XP units have a power-efficiency rating of 21.5 joules per terahash and a Bitcoin mining compute power (also known as hashrate) of 141 terahashes per second. The total combined hashrate generated by the 12,500 machines amounts to 1.76 exahashes per second.

Zach Bradford, CEO of CleanSpark, noted that this purchase ensures that the Bitcoin mining firm is prepared to meet and potentially exceed its year-end target of 16 exahashes per second. The acquisition also enables the mining firm to become “one of the most power-efficient miners on an energy-per-hashrate basis,” as per Bradford, who added:

“This additional machine purchase also gives us substantial optionality to replace the units in our existing fleet that consume more than 30 joules per terahash while allowing us to maintain less efficient machines only if the economics support doing so.”

The Bitcoin mining firm has been on a spree of buying discounted mining machines among other acquisitions since the crypto bear market began in 2022. In February, the firm purchased around 20,000 Antminer S19j Pro+ units for $13.15/TH, which were all fully paid for. It also bought 45,000 brand-new Antminer S19 XP units for $23/TH in April and continues to pay for them on schedule.

Interestingly, as reported earlier by Bitnation, CleanSpark also purchased 10,000 units of the S19j Pro model for approximately $28.00 per TH/s, after credits and discounts. The acquisitions were all made at discounted rates because of the collapse of multiple crypto firms in the 2022 bear market and the decrease in demand of these machines

“This order of XPs not only adds to our hashrate, but the efficiency of these machines also results in less power consumed per bitcoin mined compared to older generation miners, which should translate to higher margins. Importantly, we’ve already fully funded and paid for the first half of this purchase, or approximately 6,650 machines, most of which are expected to ship next month,” said Gary A. Vecchiarelli, CFO at CleanSpark.

Last year, around the time when CleanSpark acquired 10,000 units of mining machines, popular Bitcoin mining firm Compute North filed for bankruptcy in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas on Sept. 22. However, the Chapter 11 filing stated that it will be able to successfully continue to run its operations while it gradually repays the debt of its creditors.