🧡 Trump’s Victory Spurs Hope for Pro-Crypto Reforms and Bitcoin Boom

With Donald Trump’s election victory, the U.S. Bitcoin industry sees potential for a regulatory shift as his pro-crypto campaign pledges take center stage. Trump has promised to dismiss SEC Chair Gary Gensler, who pursued a strict enforcement-led approach against e.g. Coinbase and Binance. Gensler’s replacement could favor the industry, with potential candidates like Mark Uyeda, known for a more crypto-friendly stance, or a new appointee aligned with Trump’s policies.

Among the most anticipated developments is the proposed BITCOIN Act of 2024, introduced by Senator Cynthia Lummis, which would establish Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset, possibly increasing government holdings. A Republican-controlled Congress may push this bill and other favorable legislation, boosting the potential for institutional adoption and solidifying Bitcoin’s place in the national reserve alongside assets like gold.

Trump’s plans also include dismantling “Operation Choke Point 2.0,” which hindered crypto’s access to traditional banking. Repealing the SEC’s SAB 121 rule could encourage traditional banks to support crypto companies and custody of Bitcoin. Market experts suggest these regulatory shifts will support U.S. crypto exchanges and stablecoin providers like Circle and Paxos, potentially accelerating Bitcoin adoption.

In the mining sector, Trump’s pledge to make the U.S. a “Bitcoin mining powerhouse” could further consolidate American mining operations.

Trump's appointment of Elon Musk to lead a Department of Government Efficiency hints at a looser monetary policy, possibly benefiting Bitcoin as a hedge against inflation. Analysts expect a bullish environment for Bitcoin, with expectations that it could reach $90,000 by year’s end, fueled by institutional inflows and optimism around regulatory changes.

⛏️ In the News

• BitDigital executes an HPC master service agreement with a global cloud gaming provider, representing a potential $700m revenue opportunity.

• Hut8 announces an ASIC fleet upgrade with 31,145 BITMAIN Antminer S21+ miners for $15/TH.

🏃 MARA

• In October, MARA increased its energized hash rate by 14% from September, achieving a total of 40.2 EH/s.

• The company produced 717 BTC, marking a 2% increase MoM despite a slight 3% decrease in blocks won due.

• Transaction fees accounted for approximately 5% of MARA’s total bitcoin production, with notable high-fee transactions of 3.217 BTC and 2.665 BTC each.

• MARA attributes its production efficiency and ability to capture higher transaction fees to its proprietary platforms, including Slipstream and MARAPool, the company’s mining pool.

• The company remains on track to meet its goal of a 50 EH/s hash rate by the end of 2024 through continued miner installations, infrastructure enhancements, and the energizing of additional immersion containers.

• CEO Fred Thiel commented that October represented MARA’s strongest month of production since the April halving event, emphasizing consistent uptime and operational gains.

🫧 CleanSpark

• CleanSpark mined 655 BTC in October 2024, a 32% increase from the previous month, bringing its total for the year to 5,734 BTC.

• The company completed the acquisition of GRIID Infrastructure Inc., gaining a Tennessee pipeline with plans to grow its energy capacity to over 400 MW.

• Total bitcoin holdings as of October 31 were 8,701 BTC, with 2.78 BTC sold at an average price of $62,470 per bitcoin.

• CleanSpark’s deployed mining fleet stands at 196,032 miners, operating at an efficiency of 20.89 J/Th and a month-end hashrate of 31.3 EH/s.

• October’s daily BTC production averaged 21.14 BTC, with a single-day high of 22.94 BTC.

• In Knoxville, Tennessee, CleanSpark completed the purchase of two additional facilities, bringing all seven area sites online with a combined capacity of 85 MW and contributing 5 EH/s to the hashrate.

• Two new immersion-cooled data centers are under construction in Cheyenne, Wyoming, expected to add 5 EH/s to the company’s hashrate upon completion.

• Near Clinton, Mississippi, construction of two new turnkey mining sites is nearly complete, with operations expected to begin in December 2024, adding 1 EH/s with S21 pro miners.

🧑‍🔬 Core Scientific

• Core Scientific mined 369 BTC in October, up from 345 in September, bringing the year-to-date total to 5,990 BTC.

• The company hosted 16,000 customer-owned miners, earning an estimated 52 BTC in October.

• Self-mining hash rate was 19.7 EH/s, down slightly from 20.4 EH/s, while the total energized hash rate reached 21.8 EH/s.

• Core Scientific sold 370 BTC in October, generating about $24.2m in proceeds, compared to $22.2m in September.

• The self-mining fleet maintained an efficiency of 24.8 J/TH, slightly improved from 24.5 J/TH in September.

• The company operated 185,000 Bitcoin miners across its data centers, with 169,000 part of the self-mining fleet.

• Core Scientific expanded its Pecos, TX data center by 100 MW in October to increase mining capacity.

• The company delivered 26,748 MWh to local grids by reducing power consumption during curtailment events.

👮 Riot

• Riot Platforms mined 505 BTC in October 2024, a 23% increase from September and a 10% rise year-over-year.

• Average daily bitcoin production in October reached 16.8 BTC, compared to 13.7 in September.

• Riot’s total deployed hash rate increased to 29.4 EH/s, up 5% from September, with the Corsicana site expanding to 13.0 EH/s due to new MicroBT miners.

• Riot’s BTC holdings reached 10,928 BTC, a 5% increase from September and 49% higher year-over-year.

• Corsicana Facility’s Phase 1 is close to completion, adding 400 MW; Phase 2 development (600 MW) has begun with components ordered, expected to start in late 2025.

• Power credits for October totaled $1m, a 56% decrease from September, with power costs averaging 3.9 cents per kWh across sites, slightly up from 3.5 cents in September.

🐺 TeraWulf

• TeraWulf mined 150 BTC in October, with a daily average production of around 4.8 BTC, up from 140 BTC in September.

• Operating self-mining capacity reached 8.1 EH/s, marking a 62% YoY increase.

• The company maintained a power cost of $36,789 per Bitcoin mined, equivalent to about $0.048/kWh, excluding demand response revenue.

• TeraWulf advanced its miner refresh program at Lake Mariner, replacing older models with 12,200 new S19 XP miners following the sale of its stake in the Nautilus Cryptomine.

• October’s average hash rate was 6.8 EH/s, with adjustments for demand response events and performance optimizations aimed at boosting profitability.

• With new XP miners installed, TeraWulf’s hash rate is expected to grow to 8.7 EH/s by year-end.

• TeraWulf is expanding its high-performance computing (HPC) capacity at Lake Mariner, with 72.5 MW of HPC hosting capacity targeted by Q2 2025.

• Recent projects include a 2.5 MW proof-of-concept HPC facility and construction on CB-1, a 20 MW Tier 3-grade HPC facility, due in Q1 2025. Plans for CB-2, a 50 MW facility, are underway, scheduled for Q2 2025.

👁️ IREN

• Iris Energy mined 439 BTC in October, with an average operating hash rate of 19.9 EH/s, up from 16.5 EH/s in September. The company plans to reach 31 EH/s by the end of Q4 2024.

• Bitcoin mining revenue increased to $28.2m in October, driven by higher operating hash rate and rising Bitcoin prices. The company’s revenue per Bitcoin mined was $64,165, and electricity costs decreased by 12% to $20,834 per bitcoin.

• The AI Cloud Services business saw continued growth, with $1.0m in revenue for October, up from $0.7m in September. A total of 1,080 NVIDIA H200 GPUs are being commissioned, with 816 NVIDIA H100 GPUs already operational.

• The company’s data centers are expanding, with 360 MW of operational capacity and 550 MW under construction. The 1.4 GW site in Texas is on track for energization by April 2026.

• Iris Energy’s electricity cost at Childress was 3.06 c/kWh in October, benefiting from lower unit costs at this site. Discussions continue with hyperscalers on monetization opportunities such as powered land leases and colocation.

• The company is on track for 31 EH/s in Q4 2024 and expects an illustrative annualized hardware profit of $344m.

🛖 Hut8

• Self-mining hash rate remained steady at 5.6 EH/s, producing 100 BTC in October, compared to 85 BTC in September, bringing the total held to 9,110 BTC.

• Hut 8 operates a total energy capacity of 967 MW for mining, up from 762 MW in September, with plans to reach 35 EH/s.

• Total deployed miners increased to 194.2K, from 189.9K, with an average hashrate under management of 20.1 EH/s, up from 19.5 EH/s in September.

• Managed services saw an increase in miners under management to 146.5K, with a total hashrate of 15.5 EH/s, up from 14.9 EH/s in September.

• Hosting services remained stable with 76.7K deployed miners and 8.5 EH/s of hash rate under management, slightly down from 8.6 EH/s in September.

• Hut 8’s Vega site buildout is progressing, with groundwork on track for Q2 2025 energization and a hosting deployment of 15 EH/s, expected to generate up to $135m in annualized revenue once fully ramped.

• The company also launched an immersion cooling pilot at its Salt Creek site as part of its technological innovation efforts and is exploring large-scale AI data center development across its pipeline.

💻️ Bit Digital

• Bit Digital produced 52.2 BTC in October, representing a 1.4% increase from the previous month. The company's active hash rate stood at 2.43 EH/s as of October 31, 2024.

• The company earned approximately $4.3m in revenue from its initial Bit Digital AI contract in October 2024, with 256 servers actively generating revenue.

• Bit Digital's digital asset holdings included 781.2 BTC and 27,503.4 ETH, valued at approximately $54.8m and $69.2m, respectively. The total value of digital assets was approximately $124.2m in BTC equivalent.

• As of October 31, 2024, the company had $79.8m in cash and cash equivalents, with total liquidity of approximately $203.9m, which includes USDC and the fair market value of digital assets.

• Bit Digital staked approximately 21,568 ETH in native protocols, earning a blended APY of 3.4% and aggregate staking rewards of approximately 62.2 ETH for October 2024.

• Upcoming events include participation in the Roth Technology Equities Conference (Nov 19-20), NDR with H.C. Wainwright (Nov 21-22), NobleCon20 (Dec 3-4), and B. Riley Energy Convergence Conference (Dec 4).