- A crypto asset fund manager has claimed that major oil companies are becoming involved in Bitcoin mining
- Charles Edwards, founder of Capriole Asset Management, suggested that oil companies were already entering the Bitcoin mining space “at scale”
- Bitcoin mining companies are suffering from a huge competition and increasing operational costs
Big players in the oil industry will “undoubtedly become major players” in the Bitcoin mining arena according to the founder of crypto asset fund Capriole. Charles Edwards took to Twitter to espouse the theory that big oil companies and governments were engaging in the Bitcoin mining sector as the Bitcoin hashrate hit all time highs, leading to major Bitcoin mining companies staring down the barrel of increasing costs and dwindling returns.
Big Oil Already Entering “At Scale”
Edwards noted the Bitcoin “hash rate world record” set yesterday, and suggested that the increase wasn’t just down to traditional mining methods:
I have no doubt that we have serious, highly efficient government & oil company enterprises entering the mining game at scale as we speak.
Despite big Bitcoin mining players such as Argo Blockchain and Core Scientific both announcing in recent days that a variety of factors were leaving them facing financial ruin, including operational costs and the stagnation of the Bitcoin price, Edwards said that the high hash rate represented the opposite of miner capitulation:
This is not what miner capitulation looks like. It’s the opposite. There’s an old trader saying which is relevant here: don’t fight the trend. Rigs are being deployed at scale today. If hash rate stagnates, that’s when you start [sic] get concerned – but that takes weeks to change.
Oil Linkups Will Not Help Bitcoin’s Image
Edwards then painted a picture where the Bitcoin mining firms that ended up surviving the currently harsh conditions would be those that achieved tie-ins with big oil companies, using their deep pockets to expand their services and fund operational costs in return for a share in the profits.
This situation certainly would not help Bitcoin’s image as an environmentally damaging entity, but there is the hope that an injection of capital could help the push to more sustainable mining operations.
