Riot Blockchain Boosts Its Hash Rate By 45% With 1,000 New Antminers

Publicly-listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Riot Blockchain expects to increase its hash rate by 45% after receiving 1,000 Bitmain S19 Pro Antminers.

The batch of miners comprises the first of three tranches it ordered of Bitmain’s latest generation of miners, with the firm having recently purchased a total 2,000 S19 Pro and 1,040 S19 miners.

The 1,000 S19 Pro units are expected to be operational in the next two days at a facility owned by fellow mining firm Coinmint in Massena New York. Riot currently operates 4,000 S17 Pro Antminers.

Riot targets 0.46% of total hash power

Riot’s new Antminers will bring Riot’s operational hash rate to 357 petahashes per second — equating to 0.29% of Bitcoin’s current hash rate of nearly 123,000 petahashes.

Once all of the firm’s new miners are received and deployed, Riot anticipates command over an aggregate hash power of 566 petahashes — a 129% increase compared to the company’s current capacity and 0.46% of the Bitcoin network’s total hash rate. Riot hopes to exceed one exahash in operational capacity early next year.

Riot announces

Riot entered into a “co-location mining services contract” with Coinmint to relocate a portion of its Antminer S17s from Oklahoma in April to the firm’s New York facility, a former aluminum smelter. Riot emphasized that the agreement would offer reduced electricity and air conditioning expenses.

Despite racking up a $221 million deficit while relying on equity and debt financing to fund its operations, Riot’s share price has outperformed BTC over 2020 so far — with the stock’s performance reflecting a 70% increase in year-over-year quarterly revenues and dismissal of pump-and-dump allegations levied against the firm.