🇨🇳 China's Mining Dominance Persists Despite Crypto Ban, U.S. Gains Ground

Despite its 2021 ban on cryptocurrencies, China remains a dominant force in Bitcoin mining, controlling 55% of the network. Ki Young Ju, CEO of CryptoQuant, noted that while China leads, the U.S. is gaining ground, with its share of the Bitcoin hashrate rising to 40%.

The U.S. mining pools primarily serve institutional miners, while Chinese pools support smaller miners in Asia. Following the ban, which aimed to curb the volatility and perceived unreliability of cryptocurrencies, Chinese mining operations briefly paused but quickly resumed, significantly boosting their global presence.

Research from May 2022 indicated that China had already become the second-largest country for Bitcoin hashrate, and over the last two years, it has doubled its dominance. There are recent rumors that China might lift its crypto ban by September 2024, which, if true, could positively impact Bitcoin's price.

🦌 Bitdeer Completes Testing of SEAL02 Bitcoin Mining Chip

Bitdeer Technologies Group has successfully completed prototype testing for its SEAL02 bitcoin mining chip, achieving a power efficiency ratio of 13.5 joules per terahash (J/T) in low-voltage mode.

Developed in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the SEAL02 chip highlights Bitdeer’s commitment to energy-efficient bitcoin mining.

The company plans to incorporate the SEAL02 chip into its upcoming Sealminer A2 machines, with large-scale production scheduled for November 2024. Additionally, Bitdeer is advancing the development of its SEAL03 chip as part of its ongoing research and development efforts.

⛏️ In the News

⚡️ Iris Capacity

• Iris Energy has reached a 20 EH/s mining capacity milestone ahead of schedule and plans to expand to 31 EH/s by the fourth quarter of 2024.

• Bitfarms and Riot Platforms have reached a settlement in which Andrés Finkielsztain steps down from Bitfarms' board, Amy Freedman is appointed as a new director, and Riot agrees to standstill provisions through 2026.

• Hut 8's GPU-as-a-service vertical is now live, generating revenue from an AI cloud developer using a GPU cluster with 1,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs, hosted in Chicago.

• A Utah judge ruled that the SEC's case against Green United, accused of scamming investors with a fake cloud mining scheme, can proceed to trial.

📈 Core Scientific Poised to Lead in AI Hosting, Receives Buy Rating from Canaccord

• Canaccord initiated coverage of Core Scientific with a buy rating and a $16 price target.

• The company recently signed a transformative 12-year contract with hyperscaler CoreWeave for high-performance computing (HPC) data center hosting. Canaccord views this deal as the first major "mega deal" of its kind signed by a Bitcoin miner.

• The price target includes $12 for the CoreWeave contract, $3 for AI hosting-related power capacity, and $1 for the Bitcoin mining business.

• Core Scientific retains 230 MW of power for Bitcoin mining, even after repurposing nearly 500 MW for AI hosting.

🌎️ Data

• Entertaining exercise by nft evening compares average energy prices by country and the costs of mining one Bitcoin.