Bitfury-backed crypto miner Hut 8 boosts operating capacity to 66.7MW

This isn’t something we’ll see every day—a construction project finishing two months ahead of schedule. Given the reason behind the project, it doesn’t come as a complete surprise, though. Hut 8, a cryptocurrency mining company, just cut the ribbon on its second facility in Canada and, with a significant amount of operating capacity between the two operations, says that it is now the second largest mining outfit in the world by capacity.

Hut 8 issued a press release a few days ago on the new facility, which is located in the Canadian city of Medicine Hat. The company now has a total of 66.7 megawatts (MW) of operating power and 487.5 petahashes per second (PH/s) at its disposal. The Medicine Hat facility is providing 48MW of operating power through the 40 BlockBox datacenters located there, along with another 18.7MW from its Drumheller center that operates 17 BlockBoxes.

Hut 8 President and CEO Andrew Kiguel said in the release, “As a result of our employees’ hard work, our partners at the Bitfury Group and the cooperation from the City of Medicine Hat, our construction is complete—ahead of schedule and on budget. We are pleased to have surpassed our September 2018 completion target. With 66.7 MW of aggregate operating capacity, we believe we are the largest cryptocurrency miner in Canada and the largest publicly-traded cryptocurrency miner by operating capacity in the world. In addition, we are actively pursuing further opportunities to deliver value to our investors.”

Hut 8 began through a partnership with mining software developer Bitfury. To date, Hut 8 has mined approximately 1,900 Bitcoin since it was first launched last December, according to the press release.

Cryptocurrency miners have recently begun to migrate to Canada due to the abundance of energy and accessible prices. However, the move has not been without controversy, and several areas have previously resulted to moratoriums to prevent additional strain on the energy grids. In some areas, such as Quebec, energy provides have started easing back into the industry, with miners having to bid for electricity supplies.

Hut 8 is a publicly traded company based out of Toronto, Canada. According to MarketWatch, its stock (HUT) is currently trading at $3.05, an increase of 2.35% from yesterday.