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Riot Blockchain continues its efforts to develop bitcoin (BTC) mining. The US mining company reportedly wants to acquire Whinstone US Inc, which is currently owned by Northern Data.
The proposed acquisition was announced Thursday in a press release from Riot Blockchain, the US-based bitcoin miner is paying $80 million in cash. The rest will come from selling about 12% of the shares to Northern DAG.
Whinstone reportedly operates one of the largest bitcoin mines in the United States. Whinstone’s data center, located in Texas, would have a total capacity of 750 megawatts, with an additional 300 megawatt expansion under construction.
Once the deal closes, Riot Blockchain is expected to become the largest public bitcoin miner in North America in terms of operational capacity.
For Riot Blockchain, the acquisition of Whinstone represents an opportunity to increase its bitcoin mining capacity. According to Jason Les, CEO of Riot, the path the bitcoin miner has taken is to increase US participation in the global BTC mining industry.
In its announcement of the deal, Northern Data said the sale of Whinstone Riot Blockchain will not have a negative impact on earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. According to Northern DAG’s statement, the company’s profitable multi-site strategy means that all previous forecasts for EBITDA in FY2021 remain unchanged.
The proposed acquisition of Whinstone for $650 is accompanied by several expansions from to US bitcoin shares. In fact, Cointelegraph recently reported that Riot Blockchain bought 42,000 Antminer devices from Bitmain for about $138 million.
Riot Blockchain recently continued its capacity expansion program, with hash capacity set to increase nearly sixfold by 2020. The company’s efforts suggest that North American bitcoin miners have become more active in challenging China’s dominance of BTC hashing.
