Bitcoin Miner Argo Cuts Year-End Hashrate View Citing Delayed Intel Mining Rigs

Publicly traded bitcoin miner Argo Blockchain (ARBK) lowered its year-end 2022 hashrate, or mining power capacity, guidance to 3.2 exahash per second (EH/s), down 42% from previous guidance of 5.5 EH/s.

“The revision to our hashrate guidance reflects our current expectations for delivery and deployment of the custom machines we are developing with ePIC Blockchain Technologies that utilize the Intel Blockscale ASIC chips,” said CEO Peter Wall in a statement. “We have worked closely with ePIC and Intel to modify the machine design to increase total mining efficiency, which has delayed our expected deployment schedule,” he added.

The company expects hashrate to rise to 4.1 EH/s by the end of the first quarter of 2023.

Argo was one of the miners that received chip giant Intel’s (INTC) second-generation bitcoin (BTC) mining chip, called “Intel Blockscale ASIC,” which is said to offer miners more efficient rigs than most models available in the market. The company in late April had raised its year-end hashrate guidance to 5.5 EH/s from 3.7 EH/s, expecting timely delivery of the mining rigs.

Miner Hive Blockchain (HIVE) and Griid Infrastructure as well as technology giant Block (formerly Square) were also among the first customers to receive the new Intel Blockscale ASIC.

Argo’s revenue from mining in the first half of the year was $32.5 million, down 14% from the same period last year, mainly due to lower bitcoin prices and an increase in the global hashrate and associated network difficulty. Adjusted EBITDA for the first half of 2022 fell 28% from the year-ago level to $20.9 million.

Shares are down about 4% in post-market action on Wednesday and remain lower by about 60% on a year-to-date basis.

Read more: Crypto Miner Argo Blockchain Faced Equipment Challenges, Higher Costs in July

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