The first production update of 2023 from a publicly listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining company shows an increase in the hash rate and a spike in BTC production compared to the previous month, according to a new analysis of the Hashrate Index.
The majority of public miners increased their bitcoin production in January, with CleanSpark increasing it by 50%, reaching a record monthly production of 697 Bitcoins. The leader in BTC production, Scientific Core reached 1,527 coins mined in January, followed by Riot, the second largest producer, mining 740 Bitcoins in the month.
Marathon and Cipher have seen a significant increase in Bitcoin production, reaching 687 and 343 Bitcoins generated, respectively, compared to 475 and 225 in December.
According to Bitcoin mining analyst Jaran Mellerud, better weather conditions in January and stable electricity prices helped miners boost production. . With better weather in January, electricity prices stabilized, and miners were able to get higher uptime.
Hash rates increased for most public miners in January, but at a slower pace than expected. The exception is Texas-based Cipher which increased its hash rate by more than 50%, with 4.3 EH/s. “Cipher has been building hard during this bear market, and I expect the company to reach its hashrate target of 6 EH/s independent mining capacity by the end of Q1 2023,” said Mellerud.
CleanSpark also increased its hash rate to 6.6 EH/s from 6.2 EH/s in December, after several acquisitions at the end of 2022. Hive also recorded growth in January, with its hash rate increasing by almost 30%, from 2.1 to 2 ,7 EH/s. “Companies continue to replace their fleet of GPUs with ASICs, especially with their in-house designed Buzzminers,” he commented on Hive’s performance.
Core Scientific continues to increase its hash rate, reaching 17 EH/s in January from 15.7 in December. However, these figures will be affected by the bankruptcy process of the company, which includes an agreement with the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to pay the remaining debt of $ 38.6 million by handing over more than 27,000 used mining machines as collateral. – representing 18% of core Scientific rigs.
Inti Ilmiah filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on December 21, seeking to reorganize debts after months of financial difficulties due to increased electricity costs and low Bitcoin prices.
Mellerud also stated that “these companies have, on many occasions, exceeded their timelines for the purpose of high hashrate expansion. Most of them have plans to drastically increase their operating hashrate by the end of Q2 this year. At the current rate, in general they should probably push their expansion plans further in the future.