Bitcoin Miner Iris Energy to Increase Mining Capacity by 25%

Bitcoin mining company Iris Energy has declared plans to step up its mining capacity. Through a partnership with the Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturing company Bitmain, Iris Energy announced that it would be increasing its self-mining capacity from 5.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 7 EH/s, representing a 25% increase.

Iris Energy to Step Up Mining Capacity

The Bitcoin mining company revealed that the new mining capacity will be achieved through the acquisition of 7,000 units of Bitmain S21 mining machine, which will be purchased at $19.6 million. An initial $16.7 million will be deposited before shipping. The remaining $2.9 million, representing 15%, can be postponed until a year after shipment.

Funds from Iris Energy’s existing capital, including its $64 million cash in the bank, operating cash flow and other funding programs.

The shipment, scheduled for early 2024, will see the mining machine transported to and installed at Iris Energy’s Childress mining facility in Texas, United States.

Iris Energy adds that it “continues to monitor the market for additional hardware acquisition opportunities.”

Other Bitcoin Mining Firms Expand Businesses

Like Iris Energy, other Bitcoin mining companies are taking a similar turn to grow their businesses. In June, two Bitcoin mining firms – Hut 8 and U.S. Bitcoin Corp – signed an all-stock merger deal, enabling both companies to establish a new mining company under a new name, New Hut.

The new company’s market capitalization is expected to boost to $990 million across six mining facilities.

Last year, the Bitcoin mining business saw a global struggle as Bitcoin’s price plunged below the $20,000 price mark and the cost of electricity tariffs soared. Bitcoin miners like Core Scientific even went bankrupt.

However, Bitcoin mining companies began to recover from the lows as Bitcoin’s price began increasing. In April, the stocks of major Bitcoin mining companies outperformed BTC on a year-to-date (YTD) scale.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s price currently trades above $27,900, representing an impressively 40% increase over the past year.

Source: CoinStats