GuShiio.com February Mining Information: U.S. Customs strengthens review of China’s Bitcoin mining machines, Bitfau pays US$240 million to TSMC, Russia’s new mining policy, etc.

Author | GuShiio.com block chain
1 、
Bitfarms, a Bitcoin miner, is exploring artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) businesses to meet the challenge of miners’ lower incomes after Bitcoin was halved in April 2024. Bitfarms has hired two consulting firms, Appleby Strategy Group and World Wide Technology, to conduct a feasibility analysis of its 1.2GW (GW) energy assets in North America and develop an AI/HPC business development strategy. (The Block)
2 、
The Russian Ministry of Energy has announced plans to establish a single registration centre for encrypted mining equipment, which must be registered for all encrypted mining operations. If the plan is implemented, it will become & ldquo; impossible & rdquo; if the device is not registered with the system for encryption mining. The plan, led by Deputy Minister of Energy Yevgeny & middot; Grabchak, is part of a proposed amendment to existing mining regulations to better identify domestic mining activities, especially in areas where mining is prohibited. (The Block)
3 、
Stronghold Digital, a Bitcoin miner, has been fined more than $1.4 million by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for violating energy market rules and giving priority to mining and power supply to Bitcoin, of which $678600 has to be returned to PJM,74.14 as a civil fine to the US Treasury. The FERC survey found that Stronghold’s Scrubgrass power plant failed to meet its contractual obligations to provide available electricity to PJM Grid between June 2021 and May 22, diverting electricity to bitcoin mining during 57 per cent of pre-day market trading time and 59 per cent of real-time market trading time, respectively. In addition, Stronghold is also accused of buying electricity at wholesale prices and mistakenly classifying part of its consumption as & ldquo; station electricity & rdquo;. Stronghold withdrew from the PJM capacity market in June 2022, but may still need to participate in future auctions unless a formal exemption is applied or converted to power only.
4 、
Bitdeer, a Bitcoin miner, bought 19 acres of land near Fox Creek, Alberta, for $21.7 million and won a 101MW (MW) site license to build a natural gas power plant and a 99 MW Bitcoin mining data center. Bitdeer expects to launch site and infrastructure construction in the second quarter of 2025, estimated that the construction of the power plant will cost an additional US $90 million, the data center is expected to invest US $30 million and the unit MW cost is US $300000. As of December 2024, the total Bitdeer management power reached 21.7 EH/s, of which 8.9 EH/s was self-owned computing power and 12.8 EH/s was managed computing power.
5 、
Russia has issued new rules on mining in encrypted currency, requiring miners to report income before the 20th day of each month, and only approved entities can operate the mining business. The new rules make it clear that those with a record of financial crimes will be banned from mining in encrypted currency. In addition, Russia will also establish a national miner registration system to strengthen the supervision of the cryptocurrency mining industry. (Bitcoin.com)
6 、
CleanSpark, a Bitcoin miner, reported revenues of $162.3 million and quarterly net income of $241.7 million in the fourth quarter of 2024, with an adjusted EBITDA of $321.6 million, and the marginal cost per bitcoin for its own mining fell 6 per cent to about $34000. As of December 31, 2024, CleanSpark had total assets of $2.8 billion, including $929.1 million in bitcoin, total liabilities of $757.7 million, shareholders’ equity of $2 billion and working capital of $1.2 billion.
7 、
As of February 8, 2025, among the listed bitcoin miners, Marathon Digital (MARA) held the largest number of BTC (45659), followed by Riot Platforms (RIOT) held 18221, CleanSpark (CLSK) held 10556, and Hut 8 (HUT) held 10208. The holdings of other major mining companies such as HIVE, FUFU, CANGO and CANAAN are all less than 3000.
8 、
Bitmain’s recent delivery of bitcoin mining machines to US customers has been delayed as a result of increased US customs scrutiny, affecting a number of large mining companies. After the US Department of Homeland Security blacklisted Xiamen Sophgo Technology, Bitland’s artificial intelligence subsidiary, in January, the inspection of related equipment became stricter. Although BitContinent accounts for 90 per cent of the market, the move could affect the competitiveness of US mining companies, especially under pressure from equipment upgrades and rising tariffs.
9 、
The operators of the defunct cloud mining service HashFlare, Estonian nationals Sergei Potapenko and Ivan Turõgin, have pleaded guilty to charges involving a $577 million cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme. The sentencing of Potapenko and Turõgin will take place on May 8, and they face up to 20 years in prison. HashFlare suspended its mining service in 2018 and eventually ceased operations.
10 、
Las Vegas man Brent Kovar appeared in court on suspicion of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering. He is accused of falsely promoting his company Profit Connect as a profitable cryptocurrency mining and transaction verification company, promising an annualized return of 15 per cent and a 100 per cent refund guarantee, defrauding about 400 investors and illegally obtaining $24 million. Kovar uses the investment money for personal expenses and disguises the repayment as income from cryptocurrency mining. If convicted, Kovar faces up to 330 years in prison and a fine of $4.5 million.
11 、
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has suspended fraud lawsuits against cryptocurrency mining company Geosyn Mining and its executives. According to public documents, the executives were suspected of fraudulent clients’ money, promising to buy and host bitcoin mining machines for clients, but actually misappropriated funds for personal expenses. SEC previously claimed in its lawsuit that Geosyn, its chief executive Caleb Joseph Ward and former chief operating officer Jeremy George McNutt cheated about $5.6 million through service agreements sold in securities between November 2021 and December 2022. (Cointelegraph)
12 、
The Russian power grid company Rosseti Group suffered a loss of more than 1.3 billion Russian rubles (about $14.2 million) in 2024 due to illegal mining. Illegal mines lead to power grid overload and voltage drop, which in turn damage electrical equipment and household appliances. Among them, the largest power theft occurred in Novosibirsk, involving more than 32000 mining machines, with an estimated loss of 197 million rubles.
13 、
MARA Holdings has acquired a wind farm in Texas, adding 114MW of rated wind capacity and 240MW of grid-connected capacity to its operations, and will use ASIC mining hardware powered by renewable energy to reduce bitcoin production costs. MARA is the second-largest holder of Bitcoin, with 45659 BTC on its balance sheet. (CoinDesk)
14 、
Bitcoin miner Core Scientific has extended its high-performance computing (HPC) hosting business to Auburn, Alabama, by leasing AUBix’s existing facilities. The company plans to make an initial capital investment of about $135 million in the 40, 000-square-foot facility, with a total investment expected to exceed $400 million. Auburn Mayor Ron Anders said the $400 million investment in Core Scientific is expected to bring local tax revenue of $1.5 million a year. It is worth noting that Core Scientific resumed its full rdquo; coin-rdquo; strategy in January, retaining all monthly bitcoin output, bringing its bitcoin holdings to more than 500.
15 、
Janan Technology released monthly updates on its unaudited bitcoin mining business as of January 31, 2025, revealing that 88 bitcoins were mined in January 2025, with 1319 bitcoins on its balance sheet at the end of the month, 6.43 EH/s at the end of the month and 5.53 EH/s at the end of the month.
16 、
BitFuFu announced the acquisition of a data center operated by 51MW, Oklahoma, at a price of $400000 per megawatt, aimed at expanding its proprietary mining business. BitFuFu plans to deploy the AntMiner S21 series of mining machines here, claiming that the cash mining cost of each bitcoin can be reduced to $18000.
17 、
Bgin Blockchain Limited, a maker of cryptocurrency mining equipment, has applied for a US listing and is expected to raise $50 million. In a filing with SEC on February 21, Bgin said it would issue about 59.54 million Class A common shares and 15.69 million Class B common shares. Its registration statement also said it had applied to Nasdaq to list its Class A shares under the symbol & ldquo;BGIN”. Bgin’s document did not disclose the price of its offering, but Renaissance Capital, an investment consultancy, said in a report that Bgin’s IPO could raise up to $50 million. (Cointelegraph)
18 、
Riot Platforms, a bitcoin miner, reported total revenue of $376.7 million in 2024, up 34.2% from a year earlier, and net income of $109.4 million, compared with a net loss of $49.4 million in 2023. 4828 bitcoins were produced in 2024, and the average cost of mining each bitcoin was $32216, up from $3831 in 2023. (The Block)
19 、
Bitdeer reported that it paid $240 million to chip giant TSMC in the fourth quarter to achieve a hash rate of 40 EH/s by 2025, driven by its proprietary SEALMINER bitcoin mining hardware. In addition, Wu Jihan, chief executive of Bitdeer, has agreed to a 10b5 trading plan, under which he can sell up to 4 million Bitdeer shares between March and June 2025 if the minimum price threshold is met. (MinerMag)
20 、
The first scalable PoW blockchain Quai Network main network is now fully operational, using an innovative entropy minimum proof (PoEM) consensus mechanism that combines slicing and combined mining. Currently, the network has more than 150000 GPU miners, 3.3 million transactions and hundreds of consensus nodes around the world. In addition, Quai Network launched its original token QUAI through TGE in February 2025, with trading volume exceeding $120 million, peaking at $0.35 and currently valued at more than $1 billion at full dilution.
21 、
Recently, newly disclosed court documents show that Swan Bitcoin, a bitcoin financial services company, is suspected of defaulting in a bitcoin mining joint venture with stable coin giant Tether. The document alleges that Swan used its 2040 Energy stake in the joint venture without authorization to obtain financing from Ripple Labs. The dispute between Swan and Tether has triggered an exchange of lawsuits in Anglo-American courts over control of its mining operations.