Blockstream buys $25 million worth of bitcoin mining hardware from MicroBT

Blockstream announced Wednesday that it bought $25 million worth of WhatsMiner Bitcoin mining equipment from MicroBT, a Shenzhen-based hardware manufacturer. 

“We’ve been extensively testing mining hardware since the launch of our mining hosting service in 2017, and right now, we’re confident saying there’s no better mining hardware on the market than MicroBT’s WhatsMiner miners,” Blockstream said in a statement.

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Blockstream offers colocation services for clients, essentially outsourcing mining equipment and upkeep for their clients, allowing them to mine Bitcoin. Blockstream maintains 300-megawatt operations in North America and says they plan to grow “aggressively” throughout 2021, according to the statement. The company launched a mining pool in 2019.

The development comes amid broadening institutional interest in the mining space, as well as a high-demand market for mining hardware, as previously reported.

Earlier this week, the mining sector saw a long-lasting feud at the top of major manufacturer Bitmain come to a close, according to a statement from co-founder Jihan Wu. 

About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.