Since the beginning of 2024, Bitcoin mining companies listed on public exchanges have spent more than $3.6 billion on equipment and infrastructure.
This investment includes mining hardware upgrades, data center development, and other improvements aimed at expanding operations and increasing efficiency.
Spending between July and September was $1.226 billion, the second-highest quarterly level since the start of 2022, when a record $1.246 billion was set.
Final numbers are expected to hit a new record high after CleanSpark's financial reports are released.
Looking at overall performance to date, total 2024 investments are approximately $900 million higher than the entire 2022.
It is worth noting that most of the investments were focused on purchasing and upgrading mining hardware, as companies committed more than $2 billion to pre-order the latest mining machines.
This trend reflects the Bitcoin network’s hash rate rising to 790 exahashes per second and the mining difficulty reaching 101.6 trillion in November.
These investments aim to enhance efficiency and keep pace with the increasing challenges to ensure sustainable profitability.
Despite these efforts, the industry has been hit by delays in the delivery of Antminer ASICs from Chinese company Bitmain to US mining companies.
The delay is linked to speculation about geopolitical issues, including investigations into possible sanctions violations by Sophgo, a company linked to the founder of Bitmain.
If a correlation is proven, it could have a major impact on the Bitcoin mining sector.