Hi all,

In this newsletter, we summarize some of the big events from this week and will continue doing this weekly. Subscribe to get it straight in your inbox.

Here's what happened in the world of mining this week:

• Terawulf grew revenue with 140% 📈 

• New Texas Senate bill against incentives for miners ⚡️ 

• Stronghold increase EH/s by the end of the year 💡 

• NYT suggest reasons for the Bitcoin surge 🏦 

• Why Bitcoin is a counterintuitive solution for the climate 💚 

A good opinion piece from Bitcoin Magazine discussing how the bitcoin price reaction to a looming banking crisis has proven Bitcoiners right.

Increasing Number of Bitcoin Bulls in Bear Market 🐂 

Baseload Makes a Case for Ramping up Methane Capture 💚 

TeraWulf Increase Revenue by 146% as It Ramps Up Operations 🐺 

After a tough financial year the outlook for Terawulf looks promising with a giant energized operations, good cost-base, newly raised funds and a positive outlook for bitcoin prices.

• Generated revenue of 15.0 MUSD and self-mined 524 Bitcoin in 2022.

• For FY2022 TeraWulf reported a net loss of 91.6 MUSD, compared to a net loss of 95.7 MUSD million FY2021.

• Exited 2022 with 18,000 deployed miners with 2.0 EH/s of hash rate capacity.

• Self-mined 524 bitcoin in 2022 and 810 Bitcoin since inception through February 2023.

• Expects to nearly triple hash rate to 5.5 EH/s and 160 MW at existing sites in Q2 2023.

• Reiterates targeted blended cost of power of $0.035/kW across its two sites.

• Terawulf restructed purchase agreements with Bitmain, unlocking substantial deposits and completing the procurement of miners needed to fully utilize 160 MW of mining capacity.

• Entered into a beneficial debt restructuring with existing lenders to eliminate principal payments and defer amortization to April 2024 with ability to extend cash flow sweep mechanism to maturity.

Stronghold Digital Mining Had a Net Loss of 47.4 MUSD 🏰 

• The company is raising its hash rate guidance to 4 EH/s by year-end 2023. The previous guidance was 3 EH/s.

• In Q4 2022, Stronghold had revenue of 23.4 MUSD, a net loss of 47.4 MUSD.

• As of March 28, 2023, Stronghold has current liquidity of approximately 8.8 MUSD, comprising 7.7 MUSD in cash plus 39 Bitcoin.

• Stronghold has a current principal amount of debt outstanding of approximately 59.8 MUSD and net debt of approximately 51.0 MUSD.

• The company entered into an Amended Credit Agreement with WhiteHawk Finance LLC.

• The company signed a two-year hosting agreement with Foundry Digital replace a previously announced temporary hosting agreement.

• Stronghold expects to realize a benefit of at least 1 MUSD during 2023 from selling beneficial use ash, which would be incrementally beneficial in reducing net cost of power.

• Use ash is a byproduct of the coal-refuse-to-energy process.

New Texas Senate Bill Seeks to Slash Bitcoin Mining Incentives 😕 

Some bad regulatory news coming a week after a House of Representatives’ bill to protect miners. Introduced earlier this month, Senate Bill 1751 seeks to protect the state’s electric grid during peak loads, with one proposed measure being the utility-scale.

• Texas Senate Bill 1751 seeks to restrict Bitcoin mining companies from participating in a state-run demand response program and bar virtual currency mining from tax abatements.

• This program rewards miners for giving power back to the grid when demand threatens to overwhelm the system unless the anticipated demand for electricity “is less than 10 percent of the total load required by all loads in the program,”

• The bill aims to protect the state's electric grid during peak loads with utility-scale measures.

• Texas-based Bitcoin miners currently consume about 2,100 megawatts of the state's power supplies, up 75% over the last year, and the latest power usage metric was almost triple that of the prior year.

• Riot Blockchain, one of the largest Texas-based Bitcoin mining companies, has been a large beneficiary of the current incentives in Texas, earning as much as 9.5 MUSD in power credits after suspending operations during the heatwave last summer.

• Those opposing the bill argue that Bitcoin mining is uniquely capable of addressing the needs of the grid and that the industry directly employs about 2,000 people across the state and another 20,000 people for indirect jobs.

Bitcoin Surge Not From Being the Financial Alternative to Fiat - NYT 🧡 

• Bitcoin's price recently surged to nearly $30,000, up 70% for the year, after Silicon Valley Bank failed earlier this month.

• Bitcoiners claimed that the bank crisis was prompting investors to convert traditional currencies into Bitcoin.

• The journalist claim that the surge in Bitcoin's price is instead driven by financial trends such as growing optimism that the Federal Reserve may pause interest rate increases and increasing concerns about the safety of stablecoins.

• He goes on to claim Bitcoin's recent rise is also a result of low liquidity, making it harder to trade and more volatile.

• Bitcoiners see this as an opportunity to recruit new adherents who believe that it will be the global reserve currency.

• Some investors are buying Bitcoin as an alternative to keeping money at the bank, but are hesitant to commit fully due to the currency's volatility.

Hut 8 PPA Problems in Ontario 🖋️ 

Hut 8 Mining Corp. announces that it has served and filed an amended statement of claim against Validus Power Corp. and its subsidiary, Bay Power Corp. a third-party supplier of energy to the Company's mining facility in North Bay.

• The claim relates to the ongoing and previously disclosed dispute Validus' failure to meet its contractual obligations under the PPA.

• In addition, the Amended Claim, adds claims involving the associated lease in North Bay, Ontario and claim its unlawful termination.

Data 🌎️ 

A highly recommended follow on Twitter Level 39 takes us through why Bitcoin is a counterintuitive solution to the climate cris

Interesting Map of Flaring Sites 🌐