Riot Blockchain, a cryptocurrency mining company, has expanded its fleet and mining capacity with a new purchase order for 42,000 S19j Antminers from Bitmain.
Megan Brooks, Riot’s COO, said the latest purchase order positions her company and the United States at the center of the Bitcoin mining industry:
“By nearly doubling its planned hash rate capacity, Riot continues to take great strides forward in growing both the company’s and the United States’ share of the global network hash rate. We are proud of this accomplishment and remain focused on continuing to evaluate additional opportunities in the space.”
The purchase order, valued at $138.5 million, is part of a coordinated growth plan to significantly increase Riot’s Bitcoin mining hash rate. As a result of the current and previous orders, Riot said it is scheduled to receive a minimum of 3,500 S19j Antminers per month beginning in November and running through October 2022.
As Cointelegraph previously reported, Riot expects to achieve a hash rate capacity of 3.8 exahashes per second by the end of 2021. Once deployed, the new order of 42,000 Antminers will more than double the capacity to 7.7 EH/s.
Once fully operational, Riot’s mining fleet will consist of 81,150 Antminers, of which 95% are the latest generation S19 miners.
Shares of Riot Blockchain were down sharply on Wednesday, reflecting the overall downtrend in the cryptocurrency market. The stock was down 7% at the time of publication and has corrected 36% from last month’s all-time high. Astonishingly, Riot’s 52-week low is $0.93. It peaked at $79.50 in mid-March and currently trades just above $50 per share.