CleanSpark Buys 12 EH/s of S21 Bitcoin Miners for $193 Million

U.S. bitcoin mining firm CleanSpark is scaling up its proprietary hashing power in the ongoing arms race with a new order of 12 EH/s in Bitmain’s Antminer S21 for $193 million after coupons.

The Georgia-based firm said it has secured an option to buy an additional 100,000 units of the Antminer S21 model at a fixed price of $16 per TH/s, which can be exercised within this year.

The initial 60,000 units are expected to be delivered in Q2, adding 12 EH/s to CleanSpark’s existing 10 EH/s of operational hashing power. The option, if fully exercised, would bring an additional capacity of 20 EH/s.

The new bulk purchase follows CleanSpark’s September announcement of ordering 4.4 EH/s in Bitmain’s S21, bought at a cheaper price of $14/TH/s.

“We are ready to expand into the next bull market without the need to worry about an increase in machine prices since the call purchase option acts as a hedge to this risk,” said CleanSpark CEO Zachary Bradford.

Amid bitcoin’s market rally since December, the prices for future and spot stocks of Bitmain’s S21 and S19K Pro models have already been trending up notably.

Bradford added that the company opted for Bitmain’s S21 over the T21 model for better efficiency after “receiving initial units and performing real-world testing.”

As previously reported, a list of public bitcoin mining companies in North America is gearing up for an arms race ahead of the halving in April for the latest generation of mining equipment as well as data center infrastructure and even power assets.

CleanSpark was the third largest public bitcoin mining company by realized proprietary hashrate in December with 9.96 EH/s.