YEREVAN (CoinChapter.com) — Riot Platforms, a prominent Bitcoin mining company, has made a significant investment in Bitcoin mining rigs, purchasing 66,560 units from MicroBT, a technology company known for manufacturing high-quality Application-Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC) miners for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. This purchase, amounting to $290.5 million, is one of the largest in the company’s history and averages out to $4,360 per machine.
Riot Packs $290M Worth of Equipment
This move is part of Riot Platform’s strategic preparation for the upcoming Bitcoin halving event scheduled for April 2024. The agreement between Riot Platforms and MicroBT includes a right-to-purchase option, allowing Riot to acquire up to 265,000 additional miners in the future.
This recent acquisition is the largest order of hash rate in Riot’s history, as stated by CEO Jason Les, who anticipates that it will significantly enhance the company’s mining performance.
Of the newly acquired machines, over 48,000, or 72%, are the latest model from MicroBT, the M66S, which boasts a hash rate (a measure of computational power) of 250 terahashes per second (TH/s). The remaining units include the M66 and M56S++ models. Collectively, these miners will add 18 exahashes per second (EH/s) to Riot’s operations.
Riot Platforms Bitcoin mining plans include deploying the first batch of 33,280 miners purchased in June 2024, with the full deployment of the new 66,560 miners expected in the second half of 2024. Once all 99,840 rigs are operational, Riot estimates its self-mining hash rate capacity will reach 38 EH/s, expected by the second half of 2025.
Notably, the company’s stock RIOT also jumped to $15 in Dec 5 presale, a three-month high for Riot Platforms.
Bitcoin 2024 Halving Rules Riot Decision
As mentioned, the upcoming Bitcoin halving plays a significant role in Riot Platform’s Bitcoin buying decision. While rallying markets became a key theme for December, experts anticipate more bullish Bitcoin moves by the end of 2024.
In detail, a Bitcoin halving is when the payout for mining a new block is halved. It happens after every 210,000 blocks (approximately four years). The first halving occurred in March 2012, July 2016, and May 2020. Based on current estimates, the next Bitcoin halving will occur on April 26, 2024, at 18:30 UTC on block 840,000. It will reduce the block reward to 3.125 BTC.
Notably, each of the three previous halvings brought on a bullish wave, albeit not immediately, taking up to 33 months. Thus, the now–flat markets could present an accumulation window for long-term Bitcoin investors.
