U.S. miner Blockcap plans to have 40,000 ASICs operational by Q4

Blockcap, one of the largest Bitcoin mining firms in North America, has added more than 12,000 additional Bitmain Antminer S19s to its inventory.

The firm is now expecting to have deployed more than 40,000 Bitcoin miners by the fourth quarter, and projects an operational hashrate of roughly 3.5 exahashes per second, or EH/s — equal to roughly 2% of BTC’s currently combined hashrate of 171.3 EH/s.

Blockcap currently mines approximately six BTC each day.

The firm was founded in December 2020 by veterans of major blockchain hosting company, Core Scientific, with Blockcap claiming to have combined the assets of five existing mining companies.

After launching with roughly 13,000 Antminer S19s, and 500 upgraded S17s , Blockcap added another 10,000 S19s to its inventory in mid-February, before acquiring 8,400 new-generation miners from Canaan earlier this month. Blockcap estimates its mining hardware is valued at $270 million n the secondary markets.

In an announcement, Darin Feinsten, Blockcap’s executive chairman, emphasized the company’s intention to bolster U.S.-based hashing power:

“With this latest hardware acquisition, we are doubling down on our mission to become a world leader in the mining of bitcoin and other digital assets. We are moving at high speed to position the United States as a global player in this increasingly strategic industry.”

Bitcoin mining firms are increasingly capturing the imagination of traders, with Fundstrat analyst Leeor Shimron recently noting the four-largest publicly-listed mining firms outperformed BTC by 455% over the past 12 months on average.

“Until a Bitcoin ETF is approved, investors may view public mining companies as one of the only ways to get exposure to Bitcoin,” he speculated.

On March 22, Greenidge Generation announced it plans to go public by combining with a special acquisition company. Greenidge is targeting for its shares to trade on the Nasdaq. The company is majority-owned by private equity firm Atlas Holdings, and possesses its own power generation facility.