In recent days, some good news regarding Bitcoin mining has been published, especially in the USA.
Waiting for the April halving, which will halve the reward for miners, the situation seems anything but worrying, also because the halving is a widely anticipated and certain event.
Latest news in the USA: Senator Lummis’ statements on Bitcoin mining
The Republican senator for the state of Wyoming, Cynthia Lummis, has stated for example that her state would be happy to host a greater number of Bitcoin miners.
As I’ve said for years, bitcoin mining is GOOD for America’s energy grids and the development of new/stranded energy resources. Glad to see EIA temporarily suspend its intrusive and ill advised survey. PS: #BTC miners, we’d love to have you in Wyoming! https://t.co/bkQiJEG2Mx
— Cynthia Lummis
(@CynthiaMLummis) February 23, 2024
Lummis has been for many years one of the main American politicians supporting Bitcoin, so much so that she drafted a bill with her Democratic colleague Kirsten Gillibrand that could have regulated the crypto sector.
Unfortunately, mainly due to the opposition of the Democrats, effectively supported by the government of Joe Biden, this bill has not yet been approved, but in case of a Republican victory in November it could be the basis on which to develop a new crypto regulation in the USA.
It should be noted that while this year the new crypto regulation known as MiCA comes into force in the EU, the USA still does not have a precise bill to regulate the sector, precisely because the Lummis-Gillibrand one has stalled in Congress due to lack of majority support.
The advantages of Bitcoin mining
Lummis argues that Bitcoin mining could have positive impacts on the management of energy networks and for the development of new or unrecoverable energy resources in other ways.
It refers, for example, to the so-called flare gas, which is waste gas produced from oil extraction that, for example, is used in Texas to produce very low-cost electricity to power mining farms.
However, it also refers to those renewable energies whose production cannot be regulated, such as photovoltaic or wind energy.
In these cases there is a risk of producing too much electricity when maybe less is needed, and not being able to produce enough when it is needed the most. This reduces revenues but keeps production costs high, making it sometimes not very convenient to produce electricity in this way.
Bitcoin mining, on the other hand, would allow you to monetize excess energy production, keeping revenues high.
Disagreement with the Department of Energy
In her tweet on Saturday, Cynthia Lummis emphasizes that the EIA (Energy Information Administration), which is the statistical and analytical agency of the US Department of Energy (equivalent to the Ministry of Energy), had to temporarily suspend a “intrusive and thoughtless” survey on mining.
Indeed, the day before a significant disagreement had arisen between Bitcoin miners and various US energy agencies, such as the EIA, as well as DOW and OMB, regarding the collection of data on energy consumption due to crypto mining.
This disagreement led the Texas Blockchain Council to denounce the US energy agencies, effectively forcing the Department of Energy to temporarily suspend the survey.
The problem is that, according to the mining companies that were forced to respond to that survey, they were asked to disclose confidential and sensitive information that could have caused damage to the companies themselves.
The EIA, on the other hand, argues that such information would be necessary to determine whether increased electricity usage by miners could be harmful to the reliability of the electrical grid.
The Texas Blockchain Council has also stated that companies that engage in crypto mining, despite consuming large amounts of electricity, would even be able to improve the reliability of the network itself.
The case is still open, and interesting consequences could arise from its outcome.
The hashrate record
Meanwhile, Bitcoin mining hashrate is back to all-time highs.
Just today, in fact, the all-time highest hourly peak was recorded, above 717 Eh/s.
The previous record was set on February 12th at 710 Eh/s.
As for daily averages, the record remains that of February 3, when for the first time in Bitcoin’s history, daily average of 650 Eh/s was reached.
Actually, the weekly average, which is the most indicative estimate, is slightly decreasing after the peak of 609 Eh/s on February 8th.
On February 20th, it had dropped to 551 Eh/s, although in the last few days it has risen back up to 579.
Mining BTC therefore still seems to be in great shape, despite the certainty that in April the Bitcoin protocol will automatically halve the reward for miners.
However, the fact is that the halving is such a certain and predictable event that all miners have already taken precautions for some time.
Most likely they will simply turn off the less efficient, i.e. more expensive, machines, leaving only the newer ones on, in order to continue mining profitably even with the halved reward.
Bitcoin mining on the stock exchange: recent prices and news in the USA
Remembering that nowadays only smaller cryptocurrencies are mined in addition to Bitcoin, such as Dogecoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, and Ethereum Classic, the stock market performance of crypto mining companies is enlightening from this point of view.
Using the title MARA of Marathon Digital Holdings as a reference, a leading US company in this sector, from mid-October to today the price of its shares has risen from $7.7 to $24, with an incredible +210% in four months that is rarely seen on traditional stock exchanges (it is listed on the Nasdaq).
This is a title even more volatile than Bitcoin itself, perhaps also because of doubts about whether the halving could have a strong negative impact on the company’s profitability.
