North America Miners Own 20,000 Bitcoins Worth $1.10bln

Over a billion dollars’ worth of Bitcoin is being hoarded by North American public-sector mining companies. According to reports, the top North American Bitcoin mining companies have around 20,000 BTC worth more than $1.1 billion.

Recent data shows that Bitfarms have mined a maximum of 6,463 BTC in the third quarter, including Marathon, Riot, Hut8, Argo, and Hive. During that time span, the total quantity of Bitcoin mined amounted to around 7.5% of the BTC block rewards.

There was a rise in Q3 Bitcoin mining output of Hut8, Bitfarms, Riot, HIVE, and Argo. The firms’ mining output increased by approximately 82% compared to Q2. The increase in Bitcoin mining output for the mining firms was driven in part by their expansion of equipment. As a result of the recent restriction on Chinese miners, Bitcoin mining has increased among US-listed miners.

Riot had the largest Bitcoin mining output in Q3 among North American companies, according to data gathered from open sources. Other mining firms, such as Marathon, Bitfarm, Hut8, Hive, and Argo, will follow Riot. In the third quarter of this year, Bitcoin mining and electricity generating firm Greenidge went public for the first time.

As a result, only the third quarter’s output and profits were revealed by the New York-based firm, which went public through a SPAC last quarter. Because of the crackdown, BIT Digital has failed to release its Q3 financial results. While Cleanspark, a new entrant to the North American mining industry early this year, has contributed all of the BTC it mined to its books, the other companies have not.

Marathon bought 4,812 Bitcoin on the secondary market months ago and now they have a combined stake of 20,456. Due to the fact that mining companies are hoarding their mined Bitcoin, they must come up with new ways to sort bills. These businesses have chosen not to sell their Bitcoin mined.

Due to North America’s continuing infrastructure development, businesses must raise money to pre-order new machinery, pay utility bills, or expand their facilities. A portion of these these mining businesses are taking out loans to cover their costs.

Some of Argo Blockchain’s mined Bitcoin was used as security for a loan from Galaxy Digital that was for $25 million. Silvergrate Bank also provided Marathon with a $100 million loan. Marathon pledged its bitcoins and hard currency as security. Recently, Hut8 took up a 12-million dollar loan from the mining division of Digital Currency Group called Foundry. When the BTC mining facility operator Hub 8 received the loan in January, it claimed it would use the money to expand its equipment.

The miners have also raised operating cash from the public market along with loans. Hut8 raised $150 million via a public offering in September, while Argo garnered $112 million over the same period.