Bitmain has fallen on rocky times lately, as the competition in the ASIC chip business has started to heat up. Bitmain’s youngest rival recently announced a lightning fast and efficient crypto mining rig to challenge the Antminer S9 Hydro. Bitewei is led by an ex-Bitmain employee, making the rivalry even more fierce.
Jihan Wu – Bitmain CEO – announced the new ASIC mining chip at the World Digital Mining Summit in Georgia and boasted about the new chip’s impressive features. Crypto mining is the backbone of the crypto industry, so as the industry grows it will demand more high-performance mining chips such as this.
More Power Onboard
The exact specifics of Bitmain’s new ASIC chip have yet to be released, Jihan Wu did mention a few specifics in his talk. He proudly announced that the new Antminer – which the chip will form part of – will be more power efficient and only consume around 42J/T. While specifics around the new chip’s potential hash rate have yet to be revealed, Wu said that the new ASIC chip “integrates more than a billion transistors and is optimized for maximum efficiency.”
Bitmain in Trouble
Bitmain relies heavily upon the sale of crypto miners for its profits, but the falling price of Bitcoin has caused many miners to either shut or pause their operations – meaning fewer people are ordering mining rigs. This reduction in sales combined with the falling price of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash – the two cryptocurrencies that Bitmain is known to hold vast amounts of – is potentially leaving the Bitmain coffers running dangerously low. This unique set of circumstances could make the Bitmain earnings report for Q2 look rather dismal, and with its IPO looming Bitmain is clawing to get some good press.
Too Little Too Late?
If the rumors are true and Bitmain is running out of cash, this new ASIC mining chip could prove to be too little too late. It will be at least another few weeks before it can start taking orders, which means sales might lag during pre-launch. It could be looking to end Q3 strong and enter Q4 on the front foot, but by then most investors could have been scared off.
Competition Heats up
Bitmain isn’t the only company launching new crypto mining equipment. Last week Bitfury announced its new ASIC mining chip – Bitfury Clarke. While it isn’t the most powerful ASIC mining chip ever created, it barely consumes any power, making it perfect for Bitfury’s Blockboxes. When it comes to hash rate and power consumption, it is often better to have less hash rate and a much lower power consumption than higher hash rate and higher power consumption. Once you do the math and add up the final bill, 1000 Bitfury Clarke’s could end up costing you less to run and produce more hash rate than 100 Bitmain Antminer’s. It all depends on the energy efficiency of the chip.
Hopefully Bitmain can dig itself out of the hole it’s in, with this new ASIC chip providing the perfect opportunity to steady the ship. All eyes are on Bitmain, as the world awaits its Q2 earnings report. If the report is unexpectedly good, Bitmain could completely sell out its IPO come the end of the year.
