The miners' arms race is picking up momentum. The order list for ASICs is fully booked for half a year in advance, and big companies are choosing to charter private jets to not lose time on ocean freight delivery. Bitcoin's price has set a new historic high, while computation difficulty remains below May values.
Image source: bitinfocharts.com
This stimulates participants to ramp up their computational power, and the manufacturers are working on the production of more efficient models. The world's biggest ASIC provider Bitmain the other day presented the Antminer S19XP model with a hashing power of 140 terahashes and power consumption of 3 kWh. The new model's energy efficiency is 37% higher than that of the top-notch S19 Pro because it uses 5-nm chips versus 7-nm ones. This provides 25% more profitability with the same level of electricity consumption.
Image source: twitter.com/DenisRusinovich
The biggest mining companies are public. On the one hand, they're reducing their own financial risks by using raised capital; on the other hand, they have to constantly update the equipment to maintain their investment attractiveness. This explains the high demand for ASICs and long pre-order lists (besides the shortage of semiconductors).
The first S19 XP will go to such companies as Greenidge Generation Holdings, Ault Global Holdings and Bitline. These machines will only become available for a general audience no sooner than Summer 2022. According to estimates from Luxor, Bitmain will have produced 280,000 new ASICs by the end of next year, which will cumulatively provide a quarter of the current global hashrate.
Image source: stormgain.com
Thanks to the coin's high price, the average mining profitability from one terahash is at $0.35 a day, a three-year high. As there are no signs of a big Bitcoin correction happening in the near future, further escalation of the arms race and the growth of the global hashrate will likely continue.
The StormGain Analytical Group
(a platform for trading, exchanging and safeguarding cryptocurrencies)