Japan’s largest miner is deprioritizing mining
As a publicly listed company, GMO is publishing monthly statistics on their mining operations. In addition, the company presented Q2 results on August 9 that included a re-prioritization of their cryptocurrency business that did not seem to attract much attention, but was noteworthy in that the sale of mining equipment is now a higher priority for the company than in-house mining.
The company had originally targeted a hash rate of 3,000 PH/s by year-end (and stated that this plan was on target until June), but decided, due to the low bitcoin price and a significant increase in the total hash rate (thus increasing the mining difficulty, and reducing GMO’s market share), to adjust its business model. While revenues were up 91% quarter-on-quarter in Q2, this business segment suffered an unexpected loss, triggering the change. In contrast, the company’s GMOminer B2, only hitting the market in October, has been reported as sold out already, with the more powerful GMOminer B3 also experiencing strong orders.
With the August mining results being published in early September, it has become obvious that despite the statements, and the corresponding stand still in GMO’s hash power during July, August saw a further build out of mining capacity. GMO stated that they continue to establish more mining facilities, but are now using machines from other manufacturers so that there own production can be sold into the market. The new target is a hash rate of 800 PH/s by the end of December, so just about 25% of the original target.
If you found value in this article, please “clap” (up to 50 times).
This article is part of our Tokyo FinTech Publication, please follow us to read more from our writers, like hundreds of readers do every day. Should you live in Tokyo, or just pass through, please also join our Tokyo FinTech Meetup.
