HIVE Blockchain to Explore Mining Ethereum Alternatives Ahead of Merge

One of the industry’s largest crypto mining companies, HIVE Blockchain, announced today that it hit record crypto mining production figures throughout August. 

The crypto miner claims to have unlocked an average crypto haul of approximately 9.4 Bitcoin (~$187,500) and 97 Ethereum (~$161,000) per day. At today’s prices, HIVE claims to be generating almost $350,000 in crypto every day. 

HIVE says it produced a grand total of 3,010 ETH in August, worth nearly $5 million. This accounts for the lion’s share of the firm’s 5,100 Ethereum holdings. 

The company is also expected to diversify its mining portfolio ahead of Ethereum’s long-anticipated network overhaul, dubbed “the merge.” 

The upgrade will transition the blockchain from using a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, in which miners with the most computing power mine the most crypto, to a 99.95% greener proof-of-stake (PoS) algorithm, where those who stake the most Ethereum validate the most transactions. 

However, after the merge, HIVE’s mining rigs that use GPU cards will no longer be suitable for the PoS-version of Ethereum. 

The company is now looking to put them to work elsewhere and could, in theory, mine Ethereum Classic, Litecoin, Monero, Dogecoin, and others.

Ethereum Classic Jumps Nearly 12% as Hash Rate Hits All-Time High

The firm «has already commenced analysis of mining other GPU mineable coins with its fleet of GPUs, and is implementing beta-testing this week, prior to the merge,» read today’s announcement. 

Decrypt reached out to the miner for comment on these other coins but did not receive a response before publication. 

HIVE also reported that its profit margins were “marginally impacted” by the 9.26% jump in Bitcoin mining difficulty and a 4.4% spike in Ethereum mining difficulty over the last month. 

The company also holds 3,258 Bitcoin, meaning that today HIVE’s crypto wealth amounts to approximately $73.3 million, making it the third-largest crypto mining operation after Core Scientific and Marathon Digital Holdings, according to Bitcoin Treasury, which has yet to update its HIVE data with today’s figures. 

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HIVE leaves competition behind

Crypto’s current bear market has cost crypto miners a lot this year. 

Data by Arcane Research revealed that publicly-traded Bitcoin miners, like Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain, sold more Bitcoin than they mined in May—a huge change from the first four months of the year when miners sold just 30% of their earnings.

In July, an update for Core Scientific’s investors said that the NASDAQ-listed mining firm sold 7,202 Bitcoin last month at an average price of $23,000, leaving it with just 1,959 Bitcoin. 

The massive sell-off was to cover increased overheads at a time of “historic inflation,” said chief executive Mike Levitt. 

In July, crypto miner Argo Blockchain PLC released an operational report for June revealing that it had become the latest Bitcoin mining company to have sold more Bitcoin than it mined in a month. 

Earlier this year, Argo and CleanSpark both had to secure loans of tens of millions of dollars to acquire more mining equipment.

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