Celsius is closing out 2021 with an additional $300 million investment to increase the hashing power of its North American bitcoin (BTC) mining operations, keeping it competitive in an increasingly competitive industry.
Celsius and bitcoin mining: $300 million to increase hash rate
Celsius Network wants to mine more bitcoins and it’s not shying away from putting its money where its mouth is. The company has invested another $300 million in bitcoin mining, after already spending $200 million in early 2021, to acquire mining hardware and mining company shares.
On Nov. 22, 2021, Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky told The Block media that the investment will be used to increase the hashing power as well as the power generation capacity of the company’s bitcoin mining system in North America. Celsius would provide further details as to how this hash rate is expected to grow in the coming months.
Mashinsky further noted the intensifying competition in cryptocurrency mining, and the need thus for miners to be competitive:
“A lot of people who buy machines think there’s not going to be any competition, but obviously there are a lot more participants now, more players, so you have to be really good at this.”
Antminer and bitcoin lending: an impressive mining fleet, a specific business model
Celsius now has, according to Mashinsky, about 22,000 bitcoin ASIC miners. Most of these are the latest generation of Bitmain’s AntMiner S19 series. Celsius had announced in early November 2021, that the company was awaiting delivery of outstanding orders of the new AntMiner S19XP model with a power of 140 TH/s.
Celsius has a business model that sets it apart from other bitcoin mining companies. The company lends mined bitcoins to institutions to generate interest. Celsius began mining bitcoin in 2020, and claims to have $28.6 billion in assets as of November 2021.
Celsius continues to put hundreds of millions of dollars on the table to accelerate its development. 300 million will be injected into bitcoin mining. The company announced in October 2021 that it had raised $400 million to develop its cryptocurrency lending products.
