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British Columbia-based Bitcoin mining firm IREN's stock price is surging Monday ahead of the Bitcoin halving, and after the company said that it has fully funded its 2024 expansion plans that will more than double its computer fleet’s power to yield new units of the leading digital currency.
In an investor update on Monday, the company confirmed that its current mining capacity of 8 exahashes per second (EH/s) would rise to 20 EH/s over the next nine months. Its data center capacity, which powers both Bitcoin mining and AI cloud services, will also more than double from 220 megawatts (200 MW) to 460 MW this year.
Following the announcement, shares for IREN rose 19% on Monday to a current price of $6.42 per share, and briefly rose over $6.50 apiece—the highest price since February. The rise bucked a trend of sliding crypto stock prices across the board, including rival miner Cleanspark (-9.8%), crypto exchange Coinbase (-2.7%) and MicroStrategy (-4.3%).
The latter three stocks have performed exceptionally alongside Bitcoin (BTC) since the start of the year, enjoying an influx of capital spurred by the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs in January. While the same cannot be said for most Bitcoin miners, IREN and most industry firms began to rebound last month, reclaiming their market position as a higher-volatility BTC investment play.
Over the past three months, headwinds for miners have been twofold: On one hand, many firms no longer need to use mining stocks as a proxy for BTC with ETFs now available. On the other, the upcoming Bitcoin “halving”—expected on April 20—will cut the BTC reward for mining a block in half, threatening to wipe out miners who currently operate on thin margins.
Expert analysis has shown that most publicly traded miners—including IREN—aren’t in that camp, as they are able to produce their average coin far more cheaply than smaller competitors. Monday’s update also showed that the firm holds $300 million in cash with no debt, providing a cushion in case of market turbulence over the next several months.
At full 20 EH/s capacity, IREN expects to generate $269 million of annualized hardware profit. According to Yahoo Finance, the firm’s market cap is currently $672.5 million.
Edited by Andrew Hayward