The energy of numbers: Riot Platforms strengthens its position by investing in an army of 60,000 of the latest ASIC miners!

The mining company Riot Platforms is expanding its activities by purchasing a huge number of ASIC miners from the well-known manufacturer MicroBT. They recently signed a major agreement for the supply of 66,560 cryptocurrency mining devices, which indicates their intentions to increase their mining capacity.

Thanks to these new miners, the total hashrate of Riot equipment will increase by 18 exahashes per second (Eh/s). Special attention should be paid to the fact that most of the order consists of powerful MicroBT M66S models, of which 48,000 units will be delivered. They will be complemented by 14,770 M66 devices and 3,720 M56S++ miners. A representative of Riot Platforms shared this news on Twitter, noting the conclusion of another important contract with MicroBT.

The cost of this large-scale purchase was $290.5 million, which is an average of $4,360 for each ASIC miner. This new agreement is a continuation of the deal concluded in June, under which Riot Platforms is already expecting the delivery of 33,280 devices. Devices from the June deal are expected to arrive at Riot sites by early 2024, while new miners will begin shipping in the next half of the year.

After all 99,840 devices are installed and running, the total hashrate of the Riot mining infrastructure will reach 38 Eh/s. The company's management expects that this goal will be achieved in the second half of 2025. In addition, Riot has already secured the optional rights to additional supplies of equipment from MicroBT, which may help the company exceed the hashrate of 100 Eh/s in the future.

All this is happening against the background of an interesting situation in the energy sector, when in September 2023, the state of Texas, where Riot operates, faced record heat and called for a reduction in energy consumption, paying $31.7 million for a voluntary reduction in energy consumption.

Such moves by Riot Platforms may strengthen the company's position in the cryptocurrency mining market, but they also sharpen the discussion of issues related to energy consumption and environmental sustainability of the industry in a broader context.