Wu said weekly mining information: 0328-0403

1.

According to TASS, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Evgeny Grabchak said on Saturday that the legal vacuum in the field of cryptocurrency mining needs to be eliminated as soon as possible. He also pointed out that it would be more effective to determine mining sites and release energy capacity for miners at the regional level rather than at the federal level, which would need to be regulated through regional development plans.

2.

Australian bitcoin miner Iris Energy (IREN) has received $71 million in equipment financing from institutional bitcoin broker NYDIG. Iris Energy's average operating hash rate in February was 844 PH/s, and it plans to reach 10 EH/s by early 2023. (CoinDesk)

3.

Greenpeace, along with other climate groups and Ripple co-founder and executive chairman Chris Larsen, has launched a new campaign to transition Bitcoin to a more environmentally friendly consensus model. "If just 30 people — key miners, exchanges, and core developers who built and contributed to the Bitcoin code — agree to reinvent proof-of-work mining or switch to a low-energy protocol, Bitcoin will stop polluting the planet." (Cointelegraph)

4.

China's National Energy Administration issued the "Guiding Opinions on Energy Work in 2022": severely investigate and punish behaviors such as the "three designated" users' power receiving projects and illegal power supply to virtual currency "mining" projects.

5.

Canadian oil and gas company Bengal Energy is mining from “stranded wells” in remote areas of the Australian outback. Stranded wells mean that the company could technically generate electricity from natural gas on site, but current distribution pipelines are too far away to reach. Bengal Energy is looking to increase its Bitcoin mining output by 10 to 20 times, which could mean total revenue of $2,000 to $5,000 per day. (Cointelegraph)

6.

The Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission and the Provincial Department of Justice issued a notice on the rectification of virtual currency "mining" equipment: In accordance with the relevant provisions of the "Guidelines for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2019 Edition)" and the "Energy Conservation Law of the People's Republic of China", virtual currency "mining" equipment will be immediately stopped from use and confiscated in accordance with the law. "Mining" equipment should generally include electronic computing equipment (such as graphics cards, motherboards, etc.), "mining" software and mining pool access records, including but not limited to field programmable gate array (FPGA) mining machines, central processing unit (CPU) mining machines, graphics card (GPU) mining machines, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) mining machines, etc.

7.

According to 1Prime, Alexey Yakovlev, head of Russia's Financial Policy Department, urged that Russia should encourage the development of industrial-scale cryptocurrency mining in the country. There is still some disagreement about retail miners. The Ministry of Finance is not inclined to ban such mining. "In the near future, we will finalize the draft law, which will pay special attention to mining. Ensure the efficiency of economic activities, minimize risks, mainly in the fight against money laundering and financing of terrorism, and ensure national energy security." (Cointelegraph)

8.

Mining company PrimeBlock is expected to go public on the Nasdaq through a SPAC with a valuation of $1.25 billion. PrimeBlock generated $24.4 million in revenue in the fourth quarter of 2021. The company has more than 110 megawatts of data center installed capacity in 12 facilities in North America.

9.

Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms released its Q4 financial report and full-year performance data. The company's fourth-quarter revenue reached US$60 million, a 33% increase from the previous quarter and a 426% increase from the previous year. In addition, data shows that as of the end of 2021, Bitfarms held a total of US$126 million in cash and 3,301 bitcoins, worth approximately US$153 million (based on a price of US$46,300). However, the company purchased another 1,000 bitcoins in January this year, which means that the total amount of bitcoins held by it may have reached 4,301.

10.

U.S. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden is investigating whether Opportunity Zones are driving investment and job creation in low-income communities as intended, and crypto miners are the latest target of his investigation.

So far, companies that have received letters related to Ron Wyden's investigation include Redivider Blockchain Opportunity Zone Fund LLC, Argo Blockchain and HCVT LLP. It is reported that through the 2017 Republican-led tax reform during the Trump administration, the government created a program called "Opportunity Zones." The program is designed to provide benefits to investors who develop and invest in economically underdeveloped areas.

Ron Wyden said he was "concerned by recent reports that companies involved in cryptocurrency mining may be seeking to avoid taxes without actually benefiting struggling communities through the opportunity zone program." He said the lack of safeguards and transparency measures in the current opportunity zone program increases the possibility that taxpayers are simply subsidizing crypto mining companies. (Bloomberg)

11.

A subsidiary of crypto mining company Bitminer Factory filed a lawsuit against UniCredit for having its bank account closed. The District Court in Banja Luka, a local city in Bosnia and Herzegovina, ruled that UniCredit's branch in Bosnia and Herzegovina will pay a fine of 131 million euros (about 144 million US dollars).

It is reported that the Bitminer Factory subsidiary accused UniCredit of wrongly closing its current account held at the bank's local branch in Banja Luka. The court stated that the bank could not provide evidence of any written rules preventing financial institutions from establishing business relations with crypto companies. UniCredit has now appealed the verdict. (Cryptopotato)

12.

Core Scientific, the world’s largest publicly traded bitcoin miner, said its revenue for fiscal 2021 grew 803% to $544.5 million, exceeding analysts’ expectations of $507.1 million, according to FactSet data. It is reported that in January this year, the company went public through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) - Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition.

In addition, the company also reported fourth-quarter sales of $301.8 million, exceeding analysts' expectations of $205.7 million. Earlier on March 7, Core said it expects the company's hash rate to reach 40 EH/s-42 EH/s by the end of this year, which will be roughly evenly distributed between its self-mining and hosting parts. (CoinDesk)

13.

Crypto mining company Stronghold Digital Mining announced a net loss of $17.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, compared with net income of $200,000 in the same period of 2020; Stronghold's net loss for the full year 2021 was $27.3 million, compared with a net loss of $100,000 in the same period last year.

Stronghold executives said the losses can be attributed to the delayed delivery of mining machines, which has led to a negative impact on computing power. Stronghold ordered a total of 15,000 mining machines from Canadian semiconductor company MinerVa, with an initial delivery deadline of December 31, 2021, but has only received 3,300 units so far, with the remaining mining machines expected to be delivered before April 30.

Market data shows that Stronghold Digital's stock price has fallen by about 66% since it began trading on October 20 last year. (Blockworks)

14.

Cryptocurrency startup Cascade Digital Power has announced plans to use electricity generated by its hydroelectric plant in Hatfield, Wisconsin, to mine bitcoin.

The Hatfield hydroelectric power plant is reported to have a capacity of about 6 megawatts, which is small by the standards of companies that provide cheap electricity to large cryptocurrency operations in Texas and other states. About half of Hatfield's electricity will be used for crypto mining, and the rest will be sold to the local power grid. (Bloomberg)

15.

Texas has begun requiring new large-scale cryptocurrency miners to seek permission to connect to the state's power grid as an expected influx of requests will drive up electricity demand.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which operates the Texas power grid, announced that it will require new cryptocurrency mining companies to submit research reports on electricity use before approving power supply. At the same time, ERCOT said it plans to set up a working group to analyze projects to prevent grid overloads through voting. The media commented that new obstacles have emerged for cryptocurrency mining companies in Texas. (Bloomberg)

16.

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Greenidge Generation (GREE) reported fourth-quarter revenue of $44.3 million, up 617% from the same period last year. Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) were $19.1 million, up from $1.2 million a year ago. The company mined 609 bitcoins in the fourth quarter, up 167% from 228 in the same period last year. For all of 2021, Greenidge mined 1,866 bitcoins, compared to 1,146 in 2020.

Additionally, a final decision on the renewal of a license for Greenidge’s cryptocurrency mining facility in upstate New York has been delayed until June 30. (CoinDesk)

17.

Ethereum miners earned a total of $1.29 billion in March, up 7.2% from the previous month. Ethereum miners' revenue has been declining since November 2021, when total revenue was $2.07 billion.

In March, Ethereum miners earned about 1.08 times more than Bitcoin miners. Most of this revenue came from block subsidies ($1.21 billion), with only a small portion coming from transaction fees ($78.27 million) and uncle block rewards ($58.23 million). Transaction fees as a percentage of total revenue fell to 5.9%.

In November 2021, Ethereum miners' total revenue was $2.07 billion, and has been declining since then. In May 2021, total revenue reached $2.4 billion, a record high. (The Block)

18.

Lawmakers in the U.S. state of Oklahoma have advanced a bill in recent days that, if finalized, would provide tax breaks to bitcoin and cryptocurrency miners doing business in the state.
The Commercial Digital Asset Mining Act of 2022, sponsored by State Senator John Montgomery and State Representative Ryan Martinez, seeks to reduce expenses associated with hardware and electricity used by commercial mining operations.
Public records show the bill passed the Oklahoma Senate on March 22 by a vote of 29 to 16. The bill was moved to the lower chamber of the legislature on March 23 and referred to its technical committee on March 30. (The Block)