Bitcoin mining company Riot Blockchain, whose shares are trading on the Nasdaq stock exchange, has inked a $138 million deal with Chinese ASIC manufacturer Bitmain to purchase 42,000 S19j Antminers.
The new fleet of machines will expand the firm's total hashrate capacity to 7.7 exahash per second (EH/s), which represents a 93 percent increase since October.
The Riot Blockchain (NASDAQ: RIOT) stock has been on a roll in 2021, soaring over 230 percent year-to-date. Its market cap is now sitting at over $4.5 billion after surpassing $1 billion at the end of December.
COO Megan Brooks claims that the purchase is a "major milestone" for the leading U.S. mining firm:
Riot's existing fleet of miners has already positioned the Company as an American leader in Bitcoin mining. By nearly doubling its planned hash rate capacity, Riot continues to take great strides forward in growing both the Company's and the United States' share of the global network hash rate.
In February, Jason Les replaced long-time Riot executive Jeff McGonegal as the company’s new CEO.
Miners earned $1.5 billion in March
According to a recent Arcane Research report, Bitcoin miners bagged a record $1.5 billion last month.
As reported by U.Today, the network's hashrate reached a new all-time high on April 6.
Major players like Riot are rushing to scale their operation in order to capitalize on another gold rush.