Bitcoin miner CleanSpark has purchased 20,000 new Antminer S19j Pro+ units for $43.6 million to boost its mining capacity in the United States. The acquisition is expected to boost the company’s hashrate by 37 percent and bring the total number of mining machines purchased during the bear market to 46,500.
According to a Feb. 16 statement, CleanSpark will pay $32.3 million for the machines after applying a coupon for a 25 percent discount or a total price of about $13.25 per terahash (TH). The Pro+ rig is 22% more productive than the previous model and is scheduled to be delivered in batches between March and May.
The company is taking advantage of lower rig prices in the market to increase its mining capacity, while Bitcoin’s Prices rebound. According to the Hashrate Index, ASICs with the same Bitcoin mining efficiency are currently priced at $15.09 per TH, down from $90.72 12 months ago. CleanSpark says that the Antminer S19j Pro+ model offers a better return on investment than the same ASIC-generating machine.
“When they are fully operational, they are expected to add 2.44 EH/s, or 37%, to CleanSpark’s existing 6.6 EH/s of Bitcoin mining computing power (9 EH/s total),” the company noted. .” CleanSpark claims that the acquired models continue to be more attractive to its operations under current market conditions. "Compared to the same generation S19j Pro model, the S19j Pro+ delivers 122 terahash per machine, saving an average of 2 joules of energy per terahash."
A total of 15,000 new machines will be delivered to the company's Washington, Georgia location. CleanSpark disclosed a $16 million expansion to the site in January, which is expected to boost its hash rate by 2.2 exahashes/s (EH/s), taking its total hash rate up to 8.7 EH/s. The facility was acquired last August by the company, which then took over Mawson Infrastructure Group's Saundersville facility.
After a tough year in 2022 amid falling bitcoin prices and high electricity rates, listed miners saw their mining output and hash rate rise in January, according to an analysis by Hashrate Index. CleanSpark boosted its bitcoin mining output by 50% this month to a record monthly output of 697 BTC. Its hash rate rose to 6.6 EH/s from 6.2 EH/s in December.
Other public mining companies such as Core Scientific, Riot, Marathon and Cipher have seen significant increases in bitcoin production over the past month, helped by stable electricity prices and better weather conditions in the United States.
