Wu said weekly mining information 1213-1219

1. Beijing's first Bitcoin "mining" contract case was pronounced: the contract was deemed invalid

According to Beijing Daily, on December 15, the Chaoyang Court of Beijing held an open trial and pronounced a verdict on a service contract dispute caused by the delay in the return of Bitcoin "mining". The court ruled that the contract was invalid at first instance and rejected the plaintiff's request for payment of huge Bitcoin returns. It is reported that this case is the first case in which a Beijing court has ruled that a Bitcoin "mining" contract is invalid. After the case was pronounced, the Chaoyang Court sent a judicial suggestion to the Sichuan Provincial Development and Reform Commission, providing feedback on clues of virtual currency "mining" activities involved in the case and suggesting that relevant departments conduct cleanup and rectification.

In May 2019, Fengfu Jiuxin signed a "Computer Equipment Procurement Contract" and a "Service Contract" with Zhongyan Zhichuang, stipulating that Fengfu Jiuxin would entrust Zhongyan Zhichuang to purchase and manage micro storage space servers (i.e. "mining machines"), provide data value-added services for Bitcoin "mining" and pay for value-added service income. Fengfu Jiuxin paid management fees to Zhongyan Zhichuang.

After the contract was signed, Fengfu Jiuxin paid 10 million yuan to Zhongyan Zhichuang, which purchased the "mining machine" and signed a commission contract with a third-party company. The "mining machine" was operated in the "mines" of Shuiluo Township and Shawan Township, Muli County, Liangshan Prefecture, Sichuan Province.

During the performance of the contract, Zhongyan Zhichuang paid 18.3463 bitcoins to Fengfu Jiuxin as data value-added income, and no further income was paid thereafter. Fengfu Jiuxin sued the court after repeated demands for payment to no avail, requesting the court to order Zhongyan Zhichuang to deliver 278.1654976 bitcoins and compensate for the loss of the micro storage space server after the service expired. Fengfu Jiuxin claimed that based on the market transaction price of bitcoin at the time of the lawsuit, the value of the bitcoin that Zhongyan Zhichuang should deliver was US$9.55 million.

The Chaoyang Court held that Fengfu Jiuxin and Zhongyan Zhichuang signed the "mining" agreement on behalf of each other despite knowing that there were risks in "mining" and Bitcoin trading, and that relevant departments had clearly prohibited Bitcoin trading. This agreement should be invalid, and the related property rights and interests generated by it should not be protected by law. The consequences of the above-mentioned behavior should be borne by the parties themselves. In the end, the court determined that the contract between the two parties was invalid and rejected all the claims of Fengfu Jiuxin.

2. Canaan announced that it has received an order for 30,000 Avalon mining machines from Genesis Digital Assets Limited, which is expected to be delivered in the first quarter of 2022.

3. According to BTCcom, Foundry USA’s real-time computing power has exceeded Ant Pool for many days and is currently ranked first.

4. According to community screenshots, NetDragon Websoft Holdings and its subsidiaries stated that the company was notified for "mining activities" in the office area, and if it occurs again, the power and network will be cut off. After investigation, it was found that the cause was a Trojan horse in the office computers.

5. Former South Carolina gubernatorial candidate and businessman John Warren launched a new Bitcoin mining company called GEM Mining. The company has raised more than $200 million from institutions such as banks, hedge funds, endowment funds and pension funds, and is expected to install 32,000 mining machines to mine Bitcoin. (finbold)

6. Rob Chang, CEO of Gryphon Mining, believes that Bitcoin computing power may reach 300 EH/s by the end of 2022, currently 180 EH/s. Ben Gagnon, chief mining officer of Bitfarms, predicts that computing power will reach between 300 and 350 EH/s by the end of next year. Leo Lu, CEO of BitFuFu, predicts that the increase in computing power will not start until March because miners in Kazakhstan are currently facing power rationing problems. (CoinDesk)

7. Oliver Curtis, the husband of Australian internet celebrity entrepreneur Roxy Jacenko, returned to the financial industry after serving five years in prison for insider trading. Curtis is preparing to help Bitcoin mining company Firmus Grid be listed on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) in 2022. As part of the court order, Curtis is not allowed to operate or serve as a director of the company before June 2022, so Curtis does not directly manage the finances of Firmus Grid. According to the Australian Financial Review, the Tasmania-based Bitcoin mining company is seeking to raise $55 million and list on the Australian Stock Exchange next year. In addition to Bitcoin mining, Firmus also operates renewable energy cloud services and "innovative data center companies." (Mail Online)

8. Shares of environmentally conscious Bitcoin miner TeraWulf (WULF) plunged nearly 30% on its first day of trading on Tuesday. It is reported that TeraWulf went public after agreeing to merge with imaging technology company Ikonics in June, whose shares are traded on the Nasdaq. On Tuesday, its stock code was changed from "IKNX" to "WULF." TeraWulf shares fell 29.8% to $20.30 on Tuesday. TeraWulf recently raised $200 million in debt and equity financing and is expected to use nuclear, hydro and solar energy for Bitcoin mining and reach a mining capacity of 6 EH/s in the second half of 2022. (CoinDesk)

9. Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark announced in a financial report conference call on Tuesday that the company's total revenue in fiscal 2021 increased by 400%, but also recorded a net loss of $21.8 million, or a loss of $0.75 per share. In the fiscal year ending September 30, CleanSpark's revenue was $49.4 million, an increase from $10 million in the previous year. As the price of Bitcoin rose, the company's revenue in the fourth quarter exceeded $27 million. The net loss was slightly lower than its $23.3 million (or loss of $2.44 per share) in fiscal 2020. CleanSpark's adjusted EBITDA this year was $9 million, or $0.31 per share, compared with $10.2 million and a loss of $1.07 per share in the same period last year. (CoinDesk)

10. Future Fintech Group announced today that it has signed a cooperation agreement with APC Service Ltd. to establish a joint venture to build a cryptocurrency mine in Ohio, USA. The total scale of the cryptocurrency mine is 300 MW, and the scale of the first phase project is 50 MW. When the first phase of the mine is completed, 12,000 S19 Antminers can be deployed, with a pre-calculation power of up to 1.3EH/s. According to the agreement, the company will set up a wholly-owned subsidiary "FTFT Supercomputing Center" in Ohio, USA to carry out investment and construction of cryptocurrency mines. APC has the right to purchase 30% of the shares of FTFT Supercomputing Center within 365 days after the completion of the first phase of the mine. The cryptocurrency mine project is divided into six phases, each phase will build a capacity of 50 MW, each phase has an investment budget of US$10 million, a total capacity of 300 MW, and an estimated total investment of US$62 million. Among them, US$12 million of the first phase project will be used for land acquisition, plant renovation and power system upgrades. The cryptocurrency mine is located near the power plant, and the first phase of the project is expected to be completed and put into operation in June 2022. (ZhiTong Finance)

11. Andrey Lugovoy, a member of the lower house of the Russian parliament, announced that he is seeking to regulate the crypto mining industry, and the regulations will require miners to obtain a license and pay taxes after deducting energy costs. If miners do not do this, they will violate the provisions of the administrative and criminal codes of the Russian Federation. If they connect mining equipment to the national grid without state permission, they will face jail time. (zycrypto)

12. On the Russian classifieds website Avitoru, searches for equipment for mining Bitcoin increased 14 times year-on-year, while supply increased 13 times. The average price of a mining machine is 117,900 rubles (nearly $1,600). The most popular product is the Shenma mining machine, whose demand soared 23 times. (bitcoincom)