Title sponsored by Bitdeer, a NASDAQ-listed mining company.

1.

Ensure that the United States becomes the cryptocurrency capital of the world and the bitcoin superpower of the world, and we will make it happen, Trump said at the Bitcoin conference. If cryptocurrency is going to define the future, I want it to be mined, minted, and manufactured in the United States. We’ll build power plants on-site, we’ll generate electricity from fossil fuels because we have to, we’ll use nuclear energy, we’ll do it in an environmentally friendly way, but we’ll generate enough electricity.

2.

Northern Data AG is speaking with potential advisers about a US initial public offering of its combined artificial intelligence cloud computing and data center businesses.

Banks asked to pitch for a role have suggested valuations for the business from about $10 billion to $16 billion, the people said. Under the current plan, Northern Data would list an entity comprising its cloud computing activities, dubbed Taiga, and its data centers, called Ardent, on the Nasdaq as early as in the first half of next year.

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3.

Australia-headquartered Iris Energy has raised $413.4 million through stock offers said it had raised $413.4 million in gross proceeds from the sale of 39.8 million shares through its at-the-market (ATM) offering program between May 15 and June 28. The company raised $257 million in Q1 via equity financing and an additional $44.8 million between March 31 and May 15. In total, the firm raised approximately $714 million during the first half of this year.

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4.

The National Power Administration of Paraguay has announced a 14 percent increase in electricity rates for bitcoin and cryptocurrency mining, prompting mining companies to consider halting operations. One company that had planned to invest more than $400 million has already pulled out due to the lack of a clear policy. Andy Jasmin, vice president of the Paraguayan Association of Digital Asset Miners, said the move was detrimental to the investment climate, and that the increase in electricity rates had led to the withdrawal of some companies, highlighting the lack of legal security and investment safety in Paraguay.

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5.

Paraguayan Senator Salyn Buzarquis has harshly criticized Paraguay’s National Electricity Service (ANDE), claiming that high-ranking officials are receiving bribes to allow illegal bitcoin mines to operate privately. Salyn Buzarquis said the unnamed officials are receiving up to $500,000 per month in bribes, and has called on ANDE President Felix Sosa to resign or be questioned on the matter.

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6.

The Paraguayan senate has passed a series of reforms that changed penalties for energy and cryptocurrency mining-related energy theft. Now, individuals and companies found to be stealing energy for cryptocurrency mining activities will face jail time for up to 10 years, while energy theft for other purposes will face penalties for up to three years.

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7.

With Bitcoin trading below $58,000, inefficient miners are facing challenges in current market conditions, f2pool data shows. At a rate of $0.08/kWh, ASICs less efficient than 23 W/T operate at a loss.

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8.

Bitdeer announced that it has completed tape-out of SEAL02 chip, targeting a chip efficiency of 14 J/TH. Masks and wafers expected to be delivered in Q3 2024. Bitdeer remains on schedule to deploy 3.4 EH/s of ASIC technology into datacenters in Texas and Tydal, Norway by the fourth quarter of 2024, bringing total proprietary hashrate to 11.8 EH/s by year-end.

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9.

Bitcoin mining companies Bit Digital and Iris Energy have released their bitcoin mining figures for the past three months. Despite an increase in arithmetic power, the companies’ bitcoin output has been on a downward trend since April. According to the data, Bit Digital mined 119.3 BTC in April, 63.3 BTC in May, and 61.7 BTC in June, while Iris Energy mined 358 BTC, 230 BTC, and 233 BTC in the same periods. In addition, Argo Blockchain mined 99 BTC in April, 45 BTC in May and 44 BTC in June.

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10.

“We will certainly consider inorganic growth opportunities through M&A [but] expanding merely for growth’s sake, or empire building, without considering profitability makes no sense,” explained Kerri Langlais, TeraWulf’s chief strategy officer in an interview. “Our success hinges not merely on the speed of our expansion but on the discerning allocation of capital to generate sustained returns for our shareholders,” Langlais said. TeraWulf’s Langlais expects to see more Bitcoin miner M&A offers, but he also notes a large “disparity in valuations,” which makes it difficult to determine which deals are worth pursuing. Langlais would like to see a shift toward profitability and EBITDA. Langlais said TeraWulf — which mines most of its Bitcoin with nuclear energy — will remain profitable provided Bitcoin’s price stays above $40,000. （Cointelegraph）

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11.

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 has entered into a power purchase agreement for a site in West Texas with 205 megawatts of immediately available power capacity and land. The deal represents the first transaction in Hut 8’s previously announced development pipeline of 1,100 megawatts of exclusive energy capacity. Once closed, the deal is expected to increase Hut 8’s total capacity to approximately 1.3 gigawatts across its owned and managed services. （The Block）

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Bitdeer’s new Bitcoin miner brand SEALMINER A1, is now open for reservation. For every $0.99 you pay, you can unlock priority purchase rights and $100 credit towards your miner purchase. Bitdeer Sponsored.

12.

Block and Core Scientific announced an agreement to supply Core Scientific with Block’s new 3nm mining ASIC. Built by the Proto team, it represents a hashrate of approximately 15 EH/s. This is accomplished through building mining chips, systems, and software solutions, including the Mining Development Kit (MDK), currently in beta, in an open and transparent manner in partnership with the mining community.

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13.

Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc. has expanded its bitcoin mining operations with a new site in Mississippi. The site, which went live on July 1, 2024, features 2,400 bitcoin miners and is expected to increase capacity further in the coming months.

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14.

Northern Data AG announced a capital increase plan. With the consent of its supervisory board, the company will issue 10.7 million new shares, representing 20% of its existing share capital. The shares will be offered at €20.00 each, slightly above the average market price. This move is expected to generate €214 million, which will be invested in Nvidia graphics processing units (GPUs) and infrastructure to support generative artificial intelligence (AI) innovations. The company aims to enhance its cloud platform and expand its data centers in Europe and the United States.

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15.

U.S.-based bitcoin miner Cipher Mining Inc. is considering a sale and has received multiple offers, with Cipher working with advisers to gauge interest from potential buyers. Cipher’s shares have risen more than 40 percent on the New York Stock Exchange in the past 12 months, giving it a current market cap of about $2.2 billion. The AI boom has created a shortage of space in data centers, making crypto miners a target for acquisitions by AI firms looking to boost their computing power. Last month, cloud computing company CoreWeave Inc. offered to buy bitcoin miner Core Scientific Inc. for about $1 billion, while Northern Data AG, which has transformed itself into a high-performance computing provider, is considering a U.S. IPO at a valuation of up to $16 billion.

16.

HIVE Digital announced its plans for constructing a 100 MW digital asset mining operation in Paraguay. The goal is to increase its bitcoin mining hashrate to more than 12 EH/s next year. As part of the expansion, HIVE has acquired another 500 S21 Pro Antminers. As of July 21, 2024, HIVE held 2,521 BTC, valued at approximately $170 million.

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17.

Cory Klippsten, CEO of bitcoin financial services company Swan, has tweeted that the company is canceling its plans for a public offering and shutting down its bitcoin mining business. Swan had planned to go public by the end of the year, but decided to cancel the plan due to poor revenue expectations from its mining business in the near future. Swan’s managed mining business launched in July 2023. The company has also announced that it will be closing down its mining business in the near future. In addition, this realignment has resulted in layoffs across several functions of the company.

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18.

Marathon Digital has reportedly been fined $138 million after being found guilty of breaching a non-disclosure or non-circumvention agreement. Michael Ho, the co-founder of US Bitcoin Corp and the chief strategy officer of mining company Hut 8, won a unanimous jury verdict in his breach of contract lawsuit against Marathon Digital Holdings. A non-circumvention agreement is a legally enforceable agreement that protects firms or individuals from being bypassed by other parties participating in a transaction. （Cointelegraph）

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19.

Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has acquired Block Mining, a Kentucky-based bitcoin miner, in a $92.5 million deal to expand its mining operations. Riot paid the purchase deal with $18.5 million in cash and $74 million worth of Riot common stock, according to the statement. Riot said that the acquisition could immediately add 60 megawatts of current operational capacity. Riot intends to further expand Block Mining’s two sites, targeting 110 MW for self-mining operations by the end of 2024. That would bring Riot’s total potential power capacity to 2 gigawatts. （The Block）

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20.

Anduro, a sidechain platform incubated by Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital, is seeking partnerships with blockchain developers to build Bitcoin layer-2 solutions for cross-border BTC payments, Jullian Duran, Marathon’s product lead for sidechains, said at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 26. Cross-border payments are “the biggest use case for blockchain, generally speaking, and especially for Bitcoin,” according to Duran, who also contributes to Anduro, a Bitcoin layer-2 incubated by Marathon. In emerging markets, the average cost of sending money overseas is 8% to 10% of the transaction value, with settlement often taking three to four days, according to Duran. By comparison, Bitcoin transfers usually settle in 10 minutes or less — and Bitcoin layer 2s could be even faster, Duran said. Beyond payments, tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) are also among the top areas of focus for Marathon. The Bitcoin miner is in the early stages of a plan to tokenize whisky barrels in the US and has partnered with an RWA platform to preserve French castles.

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21.

WhatsMiner unveiled the latest generation of WhatsMiner new products which are air-cooling M60S+, hydro-cooling M63S+ and M64, and immersion-cooling M66S+. In regards to the WhatsMiner air-cooling M60S+, it boasts hashrate of up to 210 TH/s, with the power efficiency of 17 J/T. WhatsMiner hydro-cooling M63S+, boasts hashrate of up to 450 TH/s, with power efficiency of 17 J/T, with outlet water temperature can reach up to 70℃ (158℉). With hashrate up to 206 TH/s and power efficiency ratio of 19.9 J/T, WhatsMiner M64 is another new hydro-cooling model, with outlet water temperature, reaching up to 80℃ (176℉). WhatsMiner immersion-cooling M66S+, boasts hashrate of up to 318 TH/s, with power efficiency of 17 J/T. Dr. Zuoxing Yang believes that the estimated electricity fee for solar power mining is anticipated to decrease to approximately 4 cents USD per kWh by 2026, signifying the elimination of the primary impediment to the solar power mining industry in that year.

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22.

Bitcoin mining companies weighed in on each other at Bitcoin 2024, and Ryan Rasmussen, head of research at Bitwise, expects consolidation in the bitcoin mining industry over the next 18 months as certain well-capitalized miners look to gobble up competitors. Brokerage firm Benchmark identified technology-focused bitcoin miner Bitdeer as a potential takeover target in a recent research note. Bitdeer CSO Haris Basit said a hostile takeover is unlikely because its capital structure makes it difficult for a competitor to gain control, but suggested that a takeover would be a way for the management team to try to add value to the existing company.

In addition, Bitdeer is using some of its capacity for AI and high-performance computing companies to generate revenue, and has entered the ASIC industry to produce chips specifically for bitcoin mining. Marathon Digital is more interested in acquiring BTC, with senior vice president of government affairs Jayson Browder stating that it is focused on its own operations rather than evaluating its competitors, and that the company has a reserve of 20,000 BTC. The company has a reserve of 20,000 BTC, valued at more than $1.3 billion. （Decrypt）

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23.

Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms has reported results stating Q2 total revenues of $70 million, an average direct cost of mining bitcoin of $25,327, a net loss of $84.4 million, and non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA of -$75.2 million. As of June 30, 2024, Riot Platforms held 9,334 unsecured bitcoins, all of which came from the company’s own mining operations.

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