Mining Firm Iris Energy to Triple Hashrate: Details

According to the reports, Iris Energy, a bitcoin (BTC) miner, has announced that the installation of thousands of new mining rigs will nearly triple its mining capacity. The company said on February 13 that it had increased its self-mining capacity from 2.0 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 5.5 EH/s by purchasing Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro ASIC miners for an additional 4.4 EH/s.

‘A Significant Milestone’ for Iris Energy

The acquisition is said to increase the company’s fleet of miners by nearly 44,000, depending on the S19j Pro’s maximum hash rate of 100 terahashes per second (TH/s).

The acquisition “is a significant milestone” for the business, according to Daniel Roberts, co-founder and co-CEO of Iris. He also noted that it has been a “challenging period for both the industry and markets more generally.”

Iris stated that the new miners would be deployed in the company’s centers, although it did not specify where. The company runs three manufacturing facilities in various parts of British Columbia, Canada, and one in Texas, the US. 

The corporation paid for the rigs “without any additional cash outlay” by using the $67 million in remaining prepayments to ASIC miner maker Bitmain.

According to the company, its 10 EH/s deal with Bitmain has “been fully resolved, with no remaining commitments.” The company stated that in order to reinvest the money, it is also looking into selling surplus miners over its 5.5 EH/s mining capability.

The Bitcoin (BTC) miner had previously stated in its investor report for September that it intended to participate in prospective mergers and acquisitions (M&A). It plans to begin this M&A journey in order to expand.

Meanwhile, according to a filing made by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Iris Energy was discovered to have defaulted on a $103 million equipment loan held by two special-purpose vehicles (SPV) in November of last year (SEC).