Bitcoin (BTC) mining continues to ramp up following the successful May 11 halving, but growing industry concentration could undermine the “democratization of hash rate,” according to a panel presentation at this year’s Mining and Investment Summit. Hosted by Matrixport and sponsored by Bitmain, the 2020 Mining and Investment Summit was held virtually Tuesday morning, bringing together the "leading companies in the fields of cryptocurrency mining and digital asset financial services.” In a presentation called “Bringing Bitcoin Mining to a Broader Market,” Thomas Heller of HASHR8 provided an update on the mining industry, including trends in ASIC demand. Heller indicated that …

Last week, as share prices ripped upwards of 50% to levels not seen since the 2018 cryptocurrency bullrun, Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) appointed former director of the listing committee for the Toronto Stock Exchange, Hubert Marleau, to the Riot board of directors. The Colorado-based firm was in the market for a new director after the departure of former Canadian Cabinet member Remo Mancini. Marleau brings a wide range of regulatory and governing experience to Riot, having also served as governor of the Montreal and Vancouver stock exchanges. Marleau also boasts a strong academic background, and he currently serves as a …

For the past several months, miners around the world have been extremely active, which can be seen through spikes in hash rates that coincided with a significant increase in the prices of cryptocurrencies. At the beginning of 2020, Ether (ETH) could be bought for $130, and now, ETH has reached $500. The king of cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin (BTC), added almost a cool $10,000 to its price. So, how can users engage with the industry? What has been obvious for some time now is that solo mining is not the way to go. For Bitcoin, Ether and every major altcoin, the blockchain …

Key on-chain metrics such as Bitcoin (BTC) mining revenues have returned to pre-halving levels, according to recent research. Data from analytics provider Glassnode suggests that revenue from Bitcoin mining is now back at the same levels it was as when block rewards were double what they are now. When the halving took place in mid-May, the BTC price was around $9,000. On Nov. 18, it had doubled to $18,000. This suggests a correlation, as miners need to sell enough of the asset to cover their expenses while their operations remain profitable. Higher prices mean greater profits. #Bitcoin miner revenue is …

Amid a meteoric bull run in the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin (BTC) is overtaking another major American company in terms of market capitalization. As the Bitcoin price briefly crossed the $18,000 threshold on Nov. 18, Bitcoin’s market cap surged above $336 billion, outstripping the market cap of Nvidia — one of the world’s most well-known manufacturers of graphics cards. On Nov. 17, Nvidia’s shares closed at $330.7 billion, according to data from Macro Trends. The close follows a significant decline from a $358.7 billion threshold recorded on Nov. 2. At publishing time, Bitcoin’s market cap accounts for $336 billion, according to …

The Bitcoin Cash network just went through yet another fork after originally being created as a hard fork from the Bitcoin (BTC) blockchain in August 2017. The hard fork on Nov. 15 split the Bitcoin Cash network into two new blockchains, Bitcoin Cash ABC (BCHA) and Bitcoin Cash Node (BCHN). The main difference between the two is the 8% tax on gross rewards that miners must pay to BCH ABC’s development team. Among the two networks, Bitcoin Cash ABC received very little hash power, while Bitcoin Cash Node obtained the majority, indicating that miners may generally favor BCHN over BCHA. …

There are very few investments that can deliver an infrastructure-style downside case with a venture-capital-style upside. The combination of energy arbitrage with accumulating a balance sheet of Bitcoin (BTC) can deliver this. That is why we are seeing a rush of institutions pouring into the Bitcoin mining space and starting to build out megafacilities. Securing new-generation hardware At its peak performance in 2018, Bitmain was able to produce over 95,000 rigs per week. However, since that point, production levels have come down, a partial result of its ongoing legal battle. In the other corner, MicroBT is set to deliver hundreds …

If you talk about Bitcoin (BTC) mining, you have to talk about China. China has become a giant in the Bitcoin mining ecosystem with major mines and pools, quick, cheap labor and a majority control of the world’s hashing power. So, should you go set up a mining operation there? Do the pros outweigh the cons? Is China actually a threat to the Bitcoin ecosystem? Let’s look at the state of Chinese mining. Back to the basics In the beginning of Bitcoin, you could simply mine from your laptop or set up a few miners in your home to run …

After launching its Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool in April, crypto exchange Binance has now launched an in-house mining pool for the market’s largest altcoin by market cap, Ether (ETH). For the first month, between Nov. 12 and Dec. 12, Binance is trying to attract miners by offering a zero-fee regime. After that, those contributing their hashin power to the pool will be charged a competitive 0.5% commission on their earnings. Binance’s instructions for setting up a mining pool account note that participants will need to use a Windows or Linux operating system, GPU (NVIDIA or AMD graphics card memory of …

The behavior of crypto market participants often depends on political and economic factors: the price of crypto assets, regulations in a specific country, or political events. For Chinese miners, however, the factors differ somewhat. For several years, Chinese mining operations have been largely reliant on climate. While Western crypto companies fear falling stock prices and regulators, the survival of many crypto mining operations in China depends on rain. Chinese miners have recently migrated from the southern regions to the north, where electricity prices can be as low as $0.01. This migration has led to a surge in the Bitcoin (BTC) …

The Nasdaq-listed Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Bit Digital has announced it will issue $13.9 million in shares in exchange for mining hardware. According to a Nov. 11 announcement, Bit Digital has inked asset-purchase agreements with non-U.S. investors to issue 4,344,711 shares valued at $3.20 each in exchange for Bitcoin miners boasting a combined hash power of 1,000 petahashes per second, or 1 exahash per second. Bit Digital launched its BTC mining business in February 2020, quickly amassing 1,250 PH/s in power by October. The additional miners will nearly double Bit Digital’s operational hashing power once installed. The company also expects …

Blockchain analytics platform BlockSeer has launched the private beta version of a new Bitcoin (BTC) mining pool — Blockseer Mining Pool — that censors transactions from blacklisted wallets. The pool will use BlockSeer and Walletscore’s labeling data, among other verified sources such as the United States Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, blacklist for crypto to identify BTC transactions it does not wish to process. The pool also requires all miners to pass Know-Your-Customer protocols. DMG’s chief operating officer, Sheldon Bennett, stated: “The pool is focused on being devoid of transactions from known nefarious wallets which use this medium …