Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms orders 48,000 new machines to expand its hashrate

Publicly-traded bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms has ordered 48,000 new machines to expand its hashrate.

The Toronto Stock Exchange-listed company announced the news on Tuesday, saying that the new MicroBT machines will help expand its hashrate by over 5 exahash (EH)/ second from the current over 1 EH/s.

The first batch of the new order is expected to be delivered by January 2022, and the rest gradually by December 2022.

Once all the machines are fully deployed, Bitfarms said its hashrate would grow to 3 EH/s by the end of 2021 and 8 EH/s by the end of 2022.

At the current capacity of over 1 EH/s, Bitfarms produces roughly 5.7 bitcoin in 24 hours at the current mining difficulty rate.

Bitfarms CEO Emiliano Grodzki said the new purchase and expansion will be "the cornerstone of our corporate growth strategy through 2022."

"The supply of miners will be one of the greatest challenges in for the foreseeable future due to a global shortage of wafers used to create semi-conductor chips which is a vital component in mining rigs. Our strategy will be to continue to grow our own infrastructure and professional operations and conduct mining in our own facilities which increases operational efficiency and profitability," said Grodzki.

As The Block reported last month, bitcoin mining firms in North America continue to purchase new machines to expand their capacity. To date, at least ten firms in the region have announced bulk pre-orders estimated at more than $500 million.