<p>Bitcoin mining hardware giant Bitmain said Monday that it signed a $17.7 million deal with Riot Blockchain, a publicly-traded company that mines bitcoin, to purchase "8,000 next generation Bitmain Antminer S19 Pros."</p> <p>According to a press statement published by Bitmain, the agreement entails " a defined delivery schedule of 2,000 S19 Pros per month starting in January 2021 and continuing through April 2021 until the order is complete." A previous statement from Riot estimated that the new batch of miners would <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/riot-blockchain-announces-milestone-purchase-of-8-000-s19-pro-antminers-from-bitmain-with-delivery-starting-january-2021--resulting-in-1-45-ehs-in-total-hash-rate-301113391.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">arrive</a> sometime in November. </p> <p>"The newly announced order of 8,000 S19 Pro (TH/s) miners are expected to be received and deployed during the first four months of 2021 and are expected to raise Riot's total operational hash rate capacity to 1.45 EH/s (1,446 PH/s). Riot expects to then have a fully deployed fleet totaling approximately 15,040 miners," the firm said.</p>