As per a Bitcoin mining analyst, the favourable weather conditions in January and stable electricity prices played a role in the increase of production by miners
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A recent analysis by Hashrate Index has shown that the first production update for 2023 from publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies reveals an upward trend in their hash rate and a significant increase in their production of BTC compared to the previous month.
Most public miners raised their production of Bitcoin in January, with CleanSpark leading the way with a 50 percent increase and a record production of 697 Bitcoins. The biggest producer of BTC was Core Scientific, who mined 1,527 coins in January, followed closely by Riot, who produced 740 Bitcoins in the same period.
Marathon and Cipher have experienced substantial growth in their production of Bitcoin, with 687 and 343 Bitcoins produced, respectively, compared to their previous month's production of 475 and 225 Bitcoins in December.
According to Jaran Mellerud, a Bitcoin mining analyst, the favourable weather conditions in January, and stable electricity prices played a role in the increase of production by miners.
Mellerud explained that a winter storm in December affected North America and led to high electricity prices, which forced many mining companies to reduce their operations. However, with the improved weather in January, the electricity prices stabilised, allowing the miners to maintain higher levels of operation and produce more Bitcoins.
The hash rate of most public miners increased in January, but the pace of increase was slower than anticipated. The only exception was Cipher, a Texas-based company, which significantly increased its hash rate by over 50 percent to 4.3 EH/s.
Mellerud noted that Cipher has been working hard during the current bear market, and he predicts that the company will reach its target of 6 EH/s of self-mining capacity by the end of the first quarter of 2023.
CleanSpark also increased its hash rate to 6.6 EH/s, up from 6.2 EH/s in December, due to a number of acquisitions made in late 2022. Hive also showed growth in January, with its hash rate rising nearly 30 percent from 2.1 to 2.7 EH/s.
Mellerud explained that Hive is continuously replacing its GPU fleet with ASICs, particularly with its in-house designed Buzzminers.
Core Scientific also saw an increase in its hash rate, reaching 17 EH/s in January from 15.7 in December. However, the company's ongoing bankruptcy proceedings are expected to have an effect on these figures.
The proceedings include an agreement with the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to pay off a debt of $38.6 million by transferring over 27,000 mining machines used as collateral, which represents 18 percent of Core Scientific's rigs.
The writer is the founder at yMedia. He ventured into crypto in 2013 and is an ETH maximalist. Twitter: @bhardwajshash