30s Summary

Sixteen major mining companies, including MARA and Hive Digital, have spent $3.6 billion on new equipment and upgrades in 2023, the highest since Q1 of 2022. $2 billion of their spending was directed towards mining hardware. A change was observed in their financing strategy, from equity to debt financing. Meanwhile, Xiamen Sophgo, connected to Bitmain, faces allegations of using Huawei’s chips in its designs, leading to crypto mining hardware shipment delays at US ports and concerns of potential shortages. These issues highlight increasing regulatory challenges in the crypto mining industry.

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So, 16 major mining companies have splashed out a whopping $3.6 billion on new gear and upgrades for their plants and machinery so far this year. Big spender of the quarter was Q3, which hasn’t seen this amount of spending since Q1 of 2022.

Most of their spending went on new mining hardware, totaling a cool $2 billion since 2023. TheMinerMag spotted a shift in how these companies are financing these spends, moving from equity to debt financing.

MARA, previously known as Marathon Digital, is the latest company to jump on the bandwagon with this change in financing strategy. They used their 0% convertible note offering to snag a massive 6,474 Bitcoin for its company kitty.

In November 2024 alone, Bitfarms signed a deal to host an extra 10,000 Bitcoin mining units at its Pennsylvania center. Meanwhile, CleanSpark, who are all about renewable Bitcoin mining, revealed big plans to build 400 megawatts of mining infrastructure after buying mining company GRIID. On top of that, Hive Digital snapped up 6,500 special circuits for their soon-to-be-completed Paraguay facility.

In a bit of a sticky situation, chip designer Xiamen Sophgo, which has connections to Bitmain, is under investigation for allegedly using the same chips found in Huawei’s ascended AI processor. This is concerning as Huawei, a tech company from China, was hit with US sanctions in 2020 for concerns of spying and data threats.

After these accusations, Xiamen Sophgo and Bitmain denied having business dealings with Huawei or breaking US sanctions. Still, a shipment of Bitmain Antminers, special devices used to mine crypto, is on hold at US ports with a hefty fee of $200,000 to get it released. This creates uncertainty and fears that further sanctions and tensions could cause a shortage of much-needed mining hardware in the future.