CleanSpark said Wednesday it will acquire seven bitcoin mining facilities and associated land in the Knoxville, Tenn., area for total cash payments of $27.5 million, or about $324,000 per megawatt. The company anticipates closing at each site by Sept. 25.
The combined operating hashrate of the facilities is expected to reach 5 exahashes per second (EH/s) once the latest generation S21 Pro miners are installed, according to the press release. This will boost CleanSpark's current hashrate by over 22%. The miners required for this expansion will be installed promptly upon the closing of each site; the seven sites total 85 MW and range in size from 10 MW to 20 MW.
"With this additional 5 EH/s expected to begin hashing over the coming weeks, we now expect to achieve 37 EH/s before the end of 2024," said CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford in the release. "As we've previously discussed, our timing of the market on mining server purchases intentionally locked in low prices so that we could take advantage of opportunities like this and immediately fill acquired data center space. The GRIID acquisition, our recent closing in Wyoming, and now this new transaction represents the continued execution of our growth strategy."
Bradford said Tennessee has a political and energy environment similar to Georgia, where CleanSpark has deployed nearly $1 billion of capital and operates nearly 500 MW. In June, CleanSpark purchased all of GRIID’s outstanding stock in a deal valued at $155 million.
RELATED INDICES
"Applying the same winning community-oriented strategy to The Volunteer State is our plan as we expand our presence in the region and continue showcasing how Bitcoin can benefit the local power grid and communities where we're located," he said.
CleanSpark's stock (ticker: CLSK) was trading down 4.5% to $9.93 per share at publication time. The stock is down 18% in the year-to-date period.
Bernstein recently gave the stock an "outperform" rating, calling it one of the three largest bitcoin producers, along with MARA and Core Scientific. In terms of operational and energy efficiency, Bernstein said CleanSpark is "in the sweet spot of energy efficiency and realized hash rate/uptime."
Last week, CleanSpark said it mined 478 BTC in August, increasing its total operating hash rate by 1.4 EH/s. The company’s total bitcoin holdings stood at 7,558 as of Aug. 31.
Disclaimer: The Block is an independent media outlet that delivers news, research, and data. As of November 2023, Foresight Ventures is a majority investor of The Block. Foresight Ventures invests in other companies in the crypto space. Crypto exchange Bitget is an anchor LP for Foresight Ventures. The Block continues to operate independently to deliver objective, impactful, and timely information about the crypto industry. Here are our current financial disclosures.
© 2024 The Block. All Rights Reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
