By Alicia Maher
A US firm has raised $127 million in its Initial Public Offering (IPO), it has said. Stronghold, a Pennsylvania-based bitcoin mining firm, recorded the amount within a day of listing launching its IPO in readiness for live trade on Nasdaq. The bitcoin mining firm set its IPO at $19 per share from the earlier range of $116 to $19 on Wednesday. The increase helped the firm to raise $127 million from the sale of 6.68 million shares. Listed under the ticker SDIG, Stronghold began trading on Wednesday on the stock exchange.
In an announcement made available to the press, Stronghold revealed that it has raised that amount ahead of the trading session and that it expects to receive $114.8 million of it; nearly 91% of the total money realized. This money, it said, would be used to purchase mining rigs and power-generating equipment to boost its mining speed.
Bitcoin Mining With Waste Coal
Stronghold uses waste coal to generate electricity which powers its mining facilities. It is looking to expand and deploy more energy-efficient miners that can increase the present hash rate from 185 PH/s to over 8000 PH/s by December 2022. Stronghold has 3000 active miners now and plans to purchase 55,800 more miners in addition to its recent order of 26,150 miners of which 18,828 have been delivered. Stronghold also recently acquired a second mining facility and will certainly need more equipment and resources to make it work.
The sustainability of bitcoin mining has been an issue since the bloom when mining rigs began to appear all over the world. Bitcoin operates a Proof-of-Work protocol that requires mining for transactions to be processed. The high-energy requirement of bitcoin miners translates into a higher electricity bill which makes it unprofitable for small-time miners. Earlier this year, Elon Musk had stated that bitcoin mining must be run on renewable energy to give the coin a chance to perform at its best.
Countries like China have increased the pressure on miners within their boundaries to find alternative energy sources to reduce grid consumption. This has led to the influx of miners into countries with perceived crypto mining-friendly policies.
Deploying Energy-Efficient Miners is the Way Forward
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced last week that his company was looking at the idea of manufacturing silicon-based miners that offer better energy management than current miners. Dorsey said that the move is necessary to help bitcoin grow and avoid problems with governments due to electricity consumption.
A Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, had called for the government to set up bitcoin miners in West Texas where gas is flared. He said that the flares can be converted into electricity to power mining equipment and generate bitcoin for the government. This drives the message that current mining systems must begin to translate into sustainable power consumption to win support from governments and reduce the dependence on non-renewable energy.
With the advent of CBDCs, which require no mining, and the widespread adoption of Proof-of-Stake protocols, most crypto mining facilities are expected to be decommissioned or converted into other uses once all the bitcoins are mined.