Hut 8 expands mining operations with power deal in West Texas

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 has reached a deal to increase its operational mining power in Texas.

According to a July 9 announcement, the company secured a purchase agreement for 205 megawatts of power and land in West Texas. The transaction is expected to expand Hut 8’s energy infrastructure platform to approximately 1.3 gigawatts of capacity.

The site is adjacent to a wind farm and connected to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which is responsible for managing the flow of electric power to about 90% of the state’s electric load. According to Hut 8, it is now able to access “some of the lowest locational wholesale power pricing in North America.”

“This is the first time a large data center load has been approved under the complex regulatory framework in this particular market,” said Asher Genoot, Hut 8’s CEO.

In December 2023, Hut 8 merged with US Bitcoin Corp to form a new entity in a deal valued at $725 million. Since then, the company has been increasing its presence in the United States. In February, Hut 8 started construction on a new 63-megawatt mining facility in Culberson County. The new operation will deliver 30% lower mining costs compared to its other mining sites in the country, as per the company.

Related: Bitcoin miner TeraWulf is open to merger but not for ‘empire building’

Miners after halving

Bitcoin miners have been taking steps to diversify revenue streams for data centers and increase their hashrate in response to the recent halving in April, including through mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships.

CleanSpark, for instance, recently announced an agreement to acquire five mining facilities in Georgia. The deal, priced at $25.8 million, is predicted to exceed 3.7 exahashes per second (EH/s) in processing power. Across the mining sites, power output ranges from 8 to 15 megawatts for a total of 60 megawatts.

Public Bitcoin mining companies secured $2 billion in equity financing ahead of the revenue cut. Marathon Digital, CleanSpark, and Riot Platforms lead the fundraising, holding over $1.33 billion in cash and significant Bitcoin reserves by the end of March.

According to data from CryptoQuant, miners have seen their daily revenues decline by 63% since the halving . Bitcoin is trading at $57,683 at the time of writing, up 3.3% over the last 24 hours and 28.1% year to date.

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