Foundry to deploy 14,000 M30S Bitcoin mining machines for North American institutional buyers and launch mining pool business

Digital Currency Group’s mining subsidiary Foundry said it is working with a U.S. mining company to deploy 14,000 bitcoin ASIC miners — which are primarily in demand from institutional buyers.

Foundry said on Wednesday it will purchase 14,000 WhatsMiner M30S mining machines from Chinese manufacturer MicroBT. As part of the deal, U.S. mining farm operator Compute North will allocate 47 megawatts of electricity to power the mining machines starting in the first quarter of 2021.

Foundry will retain a portion of the unhosted mining machines for its own use and plans to sell the remaining mining machines on Compute North shelves to institutional investors.

According to the company, the goal is to simplify the upfront process for institutions so that they don’t have to deal with issues such as negotiating large pre-orders from manufacturers, shipping logistics, and procuring facilities to host the machines. “This partnership will further strengthen our relationship as we make bitcoin mining more accessible to North American institutional investors and enterprises,” said Foundry CEO Mike Colyer.

Once the machines come online, investors will be able to purchase operating mining machines from Compute North’s shelves with full payment or through a loan issued by Foundry, using the machines as collateral, the companies said.

Once fully deployed, these 14,000 units will be able to generate about 1.2 million terahashes per second (TH/s) of computing power, about 0.8% of the current total on the Bitcoin network. At Bitcoin’s current mining difficulty, this amount of hashrate could generate about 7.5 Bitcoins every 24 hours, although factors such as luck and variance may change these numbers in practice.

Foundry did not disclose the initial cost of its purchase of 14,000 units. MicroBT launched the miner in early 2020 for $2,000 each.

But the rise in bitcoin prices in recent months has pushed spot inventory prices for bitcoin mining machines to new heights. For example, mining machine market distributors are quoting spot inventory prices for MicroBT's WhatsMiner M31S (an advanced model compared to the M30S) at nearly $4,000 per unit.

The hosting deal follows MicroBT’s announcement last September that it had established its first offshore factory to expand its supply chain for the North American market. As part of the partnership, Foundry will be the vehicle for physical financing and the first to receive a new batch of MicroBT’s M30S.

At the same time, Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Grayscale's parent company DGC, tweeted a few days ago: I think the secret is out! @FoundryServices has launched what will become the largest Bitcoin mining pool in the United States. Now is the time for Bitcoin hashrate to enter the United States! Starting in February, Bitcoin miners from all over the world will be able to join the Foundry North American Bitcoin Mining Pool.