Uptober Rally Makes Miners Slightly Optimistic
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Uptober Rally Makes Miners Slightly Optimistic
Bullish price action gives some hope heading into the halving
Uptober has lived up to its expectations marking a yearly high for BTC price. Hashrate took a short breather, resulting in a mild difficulty adjustment. Hashprice increased over 10% giving many miners a reason to feel optimistic. ASIC prices keep on falling while manufactures are promoting the upcoming generation of sub 20 J/TH hardware. In this week’s market analysis I will look at the following:
Bitcoin Price
Network Hashrate
Difficulty Adjustment
Hashprice
ASIC Prices
Under 20 J/TH Hardware Launches
Fun Fact
News & Must Listen Podcasts
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Bitcoin Price
The meme Uptober has lived up to its expectations yet again. With a 30% price increase October has been a great month for traders, investors and miners. Bullish momentum pushed BTC all the way up to $35.000, a price last seen in May ‘22. On the daily timeframe there was a so-called golden cross between the 50-day moving average and 200-day moving average.
The market sentiment has improved. This is reflected in bullish news articles and tweets. But also in the fear and greed index, a multifactorial market sentiment analysis. This index showed a score of 72, a level of greed last seen around the peak of the bull market in November 2021.
Network Hashrate
After reaching a record high of 459 EH/s on October 11th, hashrate has taken a bit of a break. Network hashrate retraced to 439 EH/s but ends October with a blast to new ATHs at 469 EH/s.
Behind-the-meter Bitcoin mining refers to setting up Bitcoin mining operations at a location where electricity is generated. There are several benefits of behind-the-meter operations, both for miners and utilities. Check out the below article to find out the benefits and challenges of behind-the-meter mining and what makes Bitcoin mining the ideal behind-the-meter load.
Difficulty Adjustment
Difficulty experienced another upwards adjustment 2.35% on October 30th. Network difficulty stayed above the 60T level and marked an new ATH of 62.46 T.
Hashprice
Hashprice benefited from the strong price action of Bitcoin. On the 24th of October hashprice reached $0.074/TH/Day, a level which was last seen three months ago. Hashprice was pushed down slightly by the difficulty adjustment and is currently at $0.07/TH/Day. Still a solid 11% increase since the start of October.
ASIC Prices
Over the last weeks the price of ASICs <25 J/TH and 25-38 J/TH continued to drop. The premium for the next generation, in comparison to the new generation ASICs was $20/TH a year ago. This prize difference is now less than $2/TH. Another interesting development is the price of the mid-gen machines (38-68 J/TH) dropping below the old-gen hardware (above 68 J/TH). Perhaps the popularity of the S9 as a space heater prevents a further drop as winter is around the corner.
Under 20 J/TH Hardware Launches
One of the reasons why the <25 J/TH ASICs are loosing it’s premium, is the announcement of sub 20 J/TH machines by the big manufactures. At the Blockchain Life conference in Dubai MicroBT announced the Whatsminer M60 series. The M60 are offered as air-cooled, hydro-cooled and immersion-cooling versions. The S series has an efficiency of 18.5 J/TH and the non-S series just under 20 J/TH.
Hash House wrote a test report on the M66S immersion cooled miner. According to the report the efficiency of the miner is slightly below specs. In low power mode the machine can even reach an efficiency of 17 J/TH.
Find out how to apply underclocking in a strategic way to optimize your mining operations.
At Blockchain Life, Bitmain announced the T21 following the launch of the S21 series in September. The T21 can switch between Normal Energy Mode (NEM) and High Energy Mode (HEM). The normal energy mode reaches 190 TH/s at 19 J/TH. When put in high energy mode the T21 reaches as high as 233 TH/s with an efficiency of 22J/TH.
During the same conference Bitmain also presented a “Bitcoin Fluctuation Protection Plan.”. Offering compensation in cash to potential T21 buyers during a protection period of 1, 3 or 6 months if the price of Bitcoin falls below a certain threshold.
Fun Fact
A solo miner with ~11PH mined block 814,308 for 6.339 BTC. The miner fleet size is an equivalent of 110 units S19J Pro 100TH. During that block, Bitcoin was priced around $34,000. Meaning the the value of the 6.339 BTC mined was about $215,526.
Uptime is a crucial factor for self-mining and hosting businesses. Simply because downtime means no revenue. The industry standard in hosting is an uptime of 95%. If you are able to reach a higher uptime you are able to distinguish yourself from competition. Would you like to know how to improve uptime? Make sure to check out this article:
Why a Bitcoin ETF Is Making BTC Miners Nervous
Stacy Elliott - 30 October 2023 (Decrypt)
With the first U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF seemingly in sight, it has seemed like the entire crypto industry is optimistic about how such a product could bolster Bitcoin’s legitimacy in the investing world, ignite institutional adoption, and send the price of BTC to the moon.
Crypto Miners Lobby U.S. Lawmakers to Counter Environmental 'Misunderstanding'
Jesse Hamilton - 27 October 2023 (CoinDesk)
Dozens of mining firms came to Washington to steer the policy narrative away from negative environmental claims and make a case for mining as an economic and security boon.
Cathedra Bitcoin Launches Bitcoin Mining Firmware Product, CathedraOS
25 October 2023 (Business Wire)
Cathedra Bitcoin Inc., is pleased to announce the launch of CathedraOS (the “Firmware”), an aftermarket software product for bitcoin mining machines.
Hash House Partners with MicroBT to Test Next-Generation Immersion Miners and Announces Trident Support for the M66S
Hash House Tech - 24 October 2023 (PRWeb)
Hash House and MicroBT have collaborated to conduct official tests on next-gen immersion miners. The results showcase impressive efficiency, with the miners operating at an energy consumption level of 18.5j or below per TH. Overclocking tests achieved over a 30% increase in hashrate with minimal efficiency loss.
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