The world’s largest manufacturer Bitcoin ASIC miners, Bitmain, has sold out its first round of domestic Antminer S19 sales within 24 hours of accepting orders.
On March 23, Bitmain tweeted that it opened up its first phase of domestic sales for its long-await Antminer S19s — before selling out on the same day.
Antminer S19s will ship from March 11
The first version of the Antminer S19 will have a hashrate of 95 terahashes per second (TH/s) and an energy efficiency of 4.5±5% joules per terahash (J/TH), while the Antminer S19 Pro boasts a hash rate of 110 TH/s and an energy efficiency of 29.5±% 5 J/TH. The second version of both S19s will feature a reduced hashrate by 5 TH/s.
The regular S19 costs roughly $2,180 while the pro costs $2,920. Bitmain states that international sales will be coming soon.
Customers who managed to get in on the first round can expect the units to arrive between May 11 and May 20.
Bitmain accused of front-running miners
With the Bitcoin (BTC) halving currently expected to take place on May 12, the estimated shipping dates for Bitmain’s S19s have drawn the ire of the mining community.
Many of the comments in response to Bitmain’s announcement insinuate that the company chose the date so that it could mine using its next-generation ASICs without competition before the next fork occurs.
Jason Urgo, the CEO of social media analytics company Social Blade, posted:
“Shipping May 11thish. Gee I wonder why you picked that date lol. I thought you guys said you didn't use them yourself first before shipping them? Or is it just to make sure the ones you do have for you get the most out before you ship these.”
A user posting under the pseudonym ‘dua’ sarcastically added: “They don't use it. They just stress test it for a ‘while’ for Quality assurance.”
Cointelegraph reached out to Bitmain but had not received a response as of press time. This article will be updated should a response come in.