ASIC

Australia fines Kraken’s operator $5m for unlawful credit facility

Published

2 weeks ago

December 12, 2024

Kraken’s Australian entity, Bit Trade, is facing a multi-million fine for failing to comply with rules requiring a target market determination for its margin extension product.

The Australian operator of the Kraken crypto exchange, Bit Trade, has been fined AUD 8 million (around $5.2 million) for unlawfully issuing a credit facility to more than 1,100 customers, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said in a Thursday press release, Dec. 12.

The Federal Court ruled that the company failed to follow Australian laws requiring financial products to have a target market determination to ensure they are sold to the right customers.

From October 2021, Bit Trade offered a margin extension product that “provided for margin extensions to be made and repaid in either digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) or national currencies such as U.S. dollars,” the regulator says. However, the product was marketed without a required target market determination, a key regulatory document meant to ensure financial products are offered only to suitable customers.

The court found Bit Trade’s product breached design and distribution obligations requirements every time it was issued without a target market determination. Customers were charged fees and interest exceeding $7 million, with trading losses surpassing $5 million, the regulator claims.

One investor reportedly lost nearly $4 million using the margin extension product. Justice Nicholas, in his ruling, described Bit Trade’s actions as “serious and motivated by a desire to maximize revenue,” adding that the company failed to address compliance requirements until flagged by ASIC.

Commenting on the ruling, ASIC Chair Joe Longo called it a “significant outcome,” adding that “it is ASIC’s first penalty against an entity for failing to have a TMD and a reminder for digital assets firms to consider their regulatory compliance obligations.” In addition to the fine, Bit Trade was ordered to cover ASIC’s legal costs.

Source link

ASIC

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 to increase hashrate with fleet upgrade

Published

2 months ago

November 6, 2024

admin

Hut 8 has announced an upgrade to its ASIC fleet with the purchase of 31,145 Antminer S21+ units at $15 per terahash.

North American cryptocurrency mining giant Hut 8 has unveiled plans to upgrade its ASIC fleet with the purchase of 31,145 Bitmain Antminer S21+ miners.

In a Nov. 6 press release, the Miami-headquartered mining company stated that under the purchase agreement, it will acquire the miners at $15.00 per terahash, with delivery expected in early 2025. This upgrade is set to add 3.7 exahashes per second to Hut 8’s self-mining capacity, boosting it to approximately 9.3 EH/s, a 66% increase from current levels.

The new units are expected to enhance fleet efficiency by 37%, lowering average energy consumption per terahash from 31.7 to 19.9 joules, according to the press release.

Hut 8 upgrades mining fleet

Alongside an existing option to purchase an additional 15 EH/s of Bitmain miners at its Vega site, Hut 8 stated its goal to reach around 24 EH/s in self-mining hashrate and 15.7 J/TH in fleet efficiency by mid-2025.

Hut 8 chief executive Asher Genoot noted that the S21+ offers a “faster payback period than more efficient models across a wide band of future hashprice scenarios,” adding that these machines could help the company optimize investment returns. Following the news, Hut 8 shares rose nearly 7.6% to $16.74, according to data from Nasdaq.

The upgrade comes just a few months after Hut 8 expanded its partnership with Bitmain, revealing the upcoming launch of the U3S21EXPH, a next-generation ASIC miner capable of reaching up to 860 TH/s. Scheduled for deployment in Q2 2025, the miner is the first mass-commercialized ASIC model to feature direct liquid-to-chip cooling in a U-form factor.

Source link

ASIC

Hut 8 and BITMAIN To Launch Next-Generation ASIC Bitcoin Miner with Liquid-to-Chip Cooling

Published

3 months ago

September 19, 2024

admin

Hut 8 Corp. (Nasdaq | TSX: HUT), a leading Bitcoin mining company, has expanded its partnership with BITMAIN Technologies Ltd., the world’s largest producer of Bitcoin mining servers, to launch the U3S21EXPH, a next-generation ASIC miner. This model will be the first mass-commercialized miner to feature direct liquid-to-chip (DLC) cooling within a U form factor.

Hut 8 plans to deploy the new miner in the second quarter of 2025, with an initial hosting agreement handling approximately 15 exahash per second (EH/s). This hosting deployment, facilitated by custom-built data center infrastructure developed in-house by Hut 8, is a key part of the company’s strategy to expand its computing power across Bitcoin mining and AI compute sectors.

“Our partnership with BITMAIN has allowed us to advance our thinking on ASIC compute and create a more scalable model for data center design as we expand our footprint,” said Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8. “The U3S21EXPH will be the first miner from BITMAIN broadly commercialized with DLC cooling within a U form factor, making it rack-ready like traditional data center hardware. This innovation bridges critical engineering gaps between Bitcoin mining and AI data center infrastructure in both form factor and cooling technology, and we believe this convergence will enable us to unlock significant synergies and flexibility going forward.”

The U3S21EXPH can achieve an efficiency of 13 joules per terahash, producing up to 860 terahash. It uses DLC cooling, a technology traditionally reserved for high-performance computing (HPC) data centers, to make Bitcoin mining more energy efficient and scalable.

“Asher and Mike have been invaluable thought partners to BITMAIN since the early days of US Bitcoin Corp, where they demonstrated a unique focus on cost-efficient procurement and operations,” said Irene Gao, Vice President of Mining at BITMAIN. “Hut 8’s technical expertise, operating strength, and track record of innovation made this partnership a natural evolution of our relationship as we began the journey of developing next-generation ASIC technology.”

The commercial agreement between Hut 8 and BITMAIN includes a fixed hosting fee and a purchase option for Hut 8 to buy the hosted machines in up to three tranches. This structure allows Hut 8 to assess market conditions before making further investments, minimizing financial risk. If Hut 8 exercises this purchase option, its self-mining capacity could grow from 5.6 EH/s to 20.6 EH/s.