Bitcoin mining company HIVE Blockchain has announced a purchase of 3,019 MicroBT WhatsMiner M30S mining rigs, with the ability to increase its hashing power by nearly 46%. The rigs are being purchased from Foundry Digital and are already onsite at HIVE’s facilities.
“We are pleased to be executing on a transaction that dramatically increases our mining capacity without any logistics delays,” said Frank Holmes, executive chairman of HIVE, in the announcement. “Our entry into a North American mining pool furthers our goal of increased transparency and accountability with our partners. Mining power is shifting from East to West, and we’re excited to be involved.”
With the purchase, HIVE is forming a partnership with Foundry that reaches further than the monetary contract. As part of the collaboration, the mining company will contribute part of its bitcoin hash power to Foundry USA Pool.
Mike Colyer, CEO of Foundry, also commented on the arrangement. He shared that he and his company are “excited to have HIVE as a partner for the Foundry USA Pool” as they continue playing their part in securing the Bitcoin network.
Once the 3,019 new rigs are fully deployed into HIVE’s operations, the company might enjoy a significant boost in hashing power capacity. Currently at around 566 petahashes per second (PH/s), per the announcement, it could climb to as high as 830 PH/s. If the company’s plans are realized, this hash power increase could give HIVE a top-15 hash rate capacity in the world in present terms. However, it is unclear how much of this hash rate could be directly attributed to HIVE, since part of its hash rate will be geared toward Foundry’s mining pool.
Furthermore, HIVE also shared how the new machinery will allow the company to increase its bitcoin reserves more quickly. The company, which recently received approval to list its common shares on the Nasdaq, has apparently adopted a HODL mentality with its mined BTC since the beginning of 2021. A trend appears to be forming among bitcoin miners, which are increasingly choosing to hold onto their BTC and resorting to strategies such as bitcoin-backed fiat currency loans to cover their operating expenses in the short term.