Riot Platforms Expands Bitcoin Mining Capabilities with a $291M Investment in New Rigs Ahead of 2024 Halving
Riot Platforms, a prominent Bitcoin mining company, has announced a significant expansion in its mining operations by purchasing 66,560 new Bitcoin mining rigs from MicroBT, marking one of its largest hash-rate investments in the company’s history, strategically planned before the Bitcoin halving event in April 2024.
Riot’s recent acquisition, detailed in a statement on Dec. 4, involves a substantial investment of $290.5 million, averaging out to about $4,360 per mining machine.
This purchase agreement builds on a previous arrangement with MicroBT, where Riot initially acquired 33,280 miners. The terms have now been revised, granting Riot the future option to purchase up to 265,000 additional miners from MicroBT, under similar conditions to the current order.
Jason Les, CEO of Riot, expressed that this order represents the “largest hash rate order” in Riot’s history and is optimistic that the revised agreement will significantly enhance Riot’s mining capabilities.
The majority of the new mining equipment, over 48,000 units, will be MicroBT’s most advanced model, the M66S, boasting a hash rate of 250 TH/s. The remainder of the order includes the M66 (14,770 units) and M56S++ (3,720 units) models, as per Riot’s announcement.
In total, these 66,560 mining rigs are expected to contribute an additional 18 EH/s to Riot’s mining operations. According to Riot, the first batch of 33,280 miners, purchased in June, is scheduled for deployment in early 2024, while the newly acquired 66,560 units will be operational in the latter half of the same year.
Once all 99,840 mining rigs are fully installed and functioning, which is anticipated by the second half of 2025, Riot estimates its self-mining hash rate capacity will reach an impressive 38 EH/s.
Riot has identified the upcoming Bitcoin halving in April 2024 as a key motivation for its aggressive expansion in mining hardware.
Following the announcement, Riot’s stock (RIOT) saw a near 9% increase on Dec. 4, as reported by Google Finance, bringing its year-to-date growth to an impressive 345%.
