Bitcoin miner Cipher buys 37,000 Bitmain Antminers for $99.5 million.
publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Cipher Mining (CIFR) is expanding its operations by purchasing a large number of cryptocurrency mining rigs.
Cipher will purchase 37,396 Antminer T21 miners from Chinese cryptocurrency mining giant Bitmain under a new agreement, the company announced on December 18. The new mining rig to be purchased is expected to deliver 7.1 exahashes per second (EH/s). According to the announcement, it could have its own mining capacity by the first half of 2025.
According to Cipher CEO Tyler Page, the acquisition will allow Cipher to build its first 135 MW at its newly acquired Black Pearl site. Cipher has also secured an option to acquire an additional 45,706 miners in 2024, equivalent to 8.7 EH/s.
The purchase allows Cipher to lock in the price of its mining equipment at a “very attractive” price of $14 per Terahash (TH), the CEO added.
“We are controlling the largest potential capital costs and locking in favorable terms ahead of what we expect to be a bull market for Bitcoin.”
This investment is evidence of Cipher’s bullish outlook for the Bitcoin market. In November 2023, Cipher reportedly signed a purchase agreement to acquire the new Texas site for $7 million, to be paid in newly issued common stock. The site is expected to be operational in 2025 and boasts a potential capacity of up to 300 megawatts.
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Cipher is also aggressively purchasing new cryptocurrency mining rigs in 2023, packing 11,000 Canaan A1346 mining rigs in May.
U.S.-based Cipher Mining went public in 2021 after signing a $2 billion merger agreement with Nasdaq-listed Good Works Acquisition Corp. The company is a subsidiary of cryptocurrency mining company Bitfury and has reportedly mined at least 600,000 BTC. As of March 2021, nearly 3% of all Bitcoins are mined.
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