China’s crypto mining giant Bitmain has entered a new partnership to streamline its operations in North America. As Bitmain officially announced on Sept. 10, the company has officially partnered with Foundry, a wholly-owned crypto mining subsidiary of major cryptocurrency firm, Digital Currency Group, or DCG. Within the partnership, Foundry will provide financing to Bitmain’s end customers in North America. According to Bitmain, obtaining financing is more difficult for crypto miners than for firms in other industries. Foundry, in its turn, will help “ship a significant number of machines into North America this year,” according to Su Ke, the global sales …

Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Riot Blockchain has announced a new purchase of 5,100 Bitmain S19 Pro Antminers, that are slated for deployment in February 2021. The new miners will be purchased for $11.2 million, and comes hot on the heels of a $17.5 million deal for 8,000 S19 Pros that was inked with Bitmain on August 24. Riot expects to achieve positive cash flow during late 2020 and reach an operational hash rate of 0.55 EX/s before the end of the year. Riot currently represents more than 0.35 EX/s in hash power, or nearly 0.3% of the global hash …

Major cryptocurrency mining hardware manufacturer Bitmain is making a major sale to Riot Blockchain, a Nasdaq-listed crypto mining company. According to an Aug. 24 announcement, the firms signed a $17.7 million purchase agreement for 8,000 Bitmain Antminer S19 Pros that includes a delivery schedule of 2,000 units on a monthly basis starting in January 2021 until the order is complete. Bitmain launched the Antminer S19 Pro earlier this year, with a hash rate of 110 terahashes per second and a power efficiency of ~29.5 joules per terahash, nearly double the power efficiency per terahash of previous miner models. Irene Gao, …

Bitcoin (BTC) mining activity doesn’t seem to be reacting to the recent price rally that took the asset from approximately $9,000 in early July to almost $12,000 at time of publication. According to data from Coinmetrics, hashrate spiked around July 7 and has remained largely flat amid fluctuations to the downside. Bitcoin Hashrate (green) vs. Difficulty (red), 7-day average. Source: Coinmetrics The hashrate represents the sum total of all miners attempting to find hashes that would create new valid blocks. There is generally a strong correlation between hashrate and price, as a higher BTC value increases the profit margins for …

Bitmain, the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining hardware company, is postponing its product orders amid ongoing internal conflicts. As officially announced on Aug. 6, Bitmain will be delaying their June and July 2020 Antminer orders by at least two or three months due to “external interference on company operation.” According to the announcement, the orders will be postponed until September or October 2020 “at the earliest.” Bitmain drama is to blame While Bitmain is citing “external interference,” some industry experts are confident that the delay is caused by internal issues at the company. Dovey Wan, founding partner of blockchain investment …

Research firm Hurun published a list of global unicorns, or companies worth more than a billion dollars, in 2020. This ranking features all billion-dollar tech startups founded in the 21st century that are not listed yet listed on public exchanges. The report, named “Hurun Global Unicorn Index 2020,” shows that there are a total of 586 unicorns globally — up from 494 companies listed in the 2019 ranking. The blockchain industry represents 2% of the list. Ripple takes the top spot as the company with the highest valuation in the sector. It ranks at #23, which is up from last …

In the ongoing power struggle at cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain, not only have accusations of “illegal power seizures” made headlines, but now the physical theft of mining hardware as well. A new post on Bitmain-owned Antminer’s WeChat channel alleges that former Bitmain staff have “illegally moved” 10,000 Antiminer Bitcoin (BTC) mining rigs from a company-owned facility in Mongolia. The machines — among them models from the S17 and T17 series and flagship S9 miners — were reportedly removed in mid-July, causing “serious economic losses to the company and customers.” The incident has been reported to the police and public security …

Recent investments into cryptocurrency mining equipment by smaller players could be a positive signal for the longevity and value of Bitcoin (BTC). In late June, United States-based blockchain firm Core Scientific ordered over 17,000 of the latest Bitcoin mining ASIC machines from Chinese hardware producer Bitmain. The news made waves in the industry as the largest known order of Antminer S19s by a single operator. Core Scientific will use some of the machines for its own operations while the rest will be used for its cloud-based mining services for clients. Furthermore, one of its major clients, Horizon Kinetics, has increased …

The power struggle between the two co-founders of Bitmain, Micree Zhan and Jihan Wu, seems to have reached new heights as Zhan appears to be re-routing its financial flows to entities fully controlled by him. This is part of a public service announcement posted on Bitmain’s Weibo and WeChat pages, which notified customers that Bitmain’s payment credentials and email have changed. These appear to be pointing to accounts controlled by Zhan. However, according to BlockBeats reporting, Wu issued a statement claiming that these actions are due to compromised WeChat and Weibo accounts that are reporting false information. According to the …

American blockchain hosting provider Core Scientific signed a deal to buy next-generation Bitcoin (BTC) mining machines from major Chinese mining hardware producer Bitmain. Core Scientific will purchase more than 17,000 S19 Antminers from Bitmain on behalf of its clients and for its own use. It will be the largest number of S19 machines purchased by a single blockchain hosting company, according to Core Scientific. Kevin Turner, president and CEO of Core Scientific and the former COO of Microsoft said, "Core Scientific has received and begun testing the first of Bitmain’s newest ASIC miners, and has seen material success in increasing …

The Avalanche Foundation, the organization behind the Emin Gün Sirer-founded blockchain protocol Avalanche, has raised $12 million in a new private token sale. According to an announcement on June 25, the sale was led by major industry investors like Chinese mining giant Bitmain and Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital. The token sale comes ahead of the AVA mainet launch scheduled for summer 2020. Other prominent investors in AVA’s token sale included San Francisco-based venture capital firm Initialized Capital, NGC Ventures and Dragonfly Capital. Dozens of other individuals have participated in the private sale as well, AVA Labs said. Public sale follows …

The Bitmain power struggle continues as Micree Ketuan Zhan, one of the co-founders of the crypto mining giant and its largest shareholder, has reportedly made an offer to purchase shares controlled by his fellow co-founder Jihan Wu and others for $4 billion. According to a letter provided to Chinese media outlet Jinse on June 21, Zhan claims he currently owns 36% of the shares for Bitmain’s Cayman Islands parent company — which owns Bitmain Hong Kong — and controls Bitmain’s offices in Beijing. His current shares give him 59.6% of the voting power. The letter states Zhan is willing to …