Crypto lending platform Celsius injects another $300M into BTC mining
The crypto lender has now put $500 million into Bitcoin mining operations in North America
London-based crypto lending platform early this week confirmed it had added $300 million to its June investment of $2oo into Bitcoin mining. The firm’s chief executive Alex Mashinsky said during an interview with The Block on Monday that with this investment, the company plans to expand its Bitcoin mining operations in North America by increasing the hash rate and power capacity. He added that Celsius would provide further details on how the hash rate advancement will be spread out over the coming months.
“These are commitments for this year and next year — so we will be adding (mining) capacity all the time until the end of next year,” he said.
Mashinsky also detailed that Celsius now has about 22,000 Bitcoin ASIC miners with plans in place to acquire Bitmain’s incoming miner, the 140 terahashes-per-second (TH/s) AntMiner S19XP. The capital input ranks Celsius as one of the leading cryptocurrency miners in the North American region.
Despite the firm’s status and position in the market, the Celsius boss still feels that given the level of competition in the mining business, the company must remain consistent.
“A lot of people that are buying machines, they think the competition is just not gonna be there, but obviously now there are a lot more participants, more players, so you really have to be good at this business,” he said.
Adding to an initial investment
In June this year, Celsius invested $200 million into mining activity in the same region. The investment was intended to develop Bitcoin infrastructure, though the company also established positions in Luxor Technologies, Rhodium Enterprises, and Core Scientific.
The mining firm currently has more than $28.5 billion worth of assets under management. Last month, the company raised $400 million at a $3 billion valuation in a round spearheaded by equity firm WestCap. The firm stated that the capital raised was intended to reaffirm the business’ credibility to regulators. Celsius has previously met inquiries and, in some cases, legal action over its lending products in states including New Jersey, Alabama, and Kentucky.
Beijing’s effect on US mining operations
Before the May crackdown, China held approximately 65% of the world’s Bitcoin mining power. When China became inherently hostile towards digital assets, the crypto markets tumbled as miners and other crypto-related businesses moved out of the Asian country.
China’s anti-crypto policies, which were intensified in subsequent months, coupled with the presence of crypto-friendly regions such as Texas, shifted mining dominance to the US. A report by the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index (CBECI) released in October confirmed that the US topped the charts in terms of mining with 35.4% of the world’s mining power.
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