The highly-anticipated fourth Bitcoin halving occurred a little after 8:09 p.m. ET on Friday April 19, 2024.
Initially, Bitcoin traded flat in “the immediate aftermath of the halving, holding steady around $63,000, but finished the month at $60,636, a drop of 15% on the closing price for the previous month,” the Compass Mining team noted in an extensive report.
Within hours of the halving, miners “intensified their efforts to secure transactions and earn fees in the limited block space available.”
The Compass Mining report mentioned that the “introduction of Casey Rodarmor’s Runes protocol allowed users to mint digital tokens directly on the Bitcoin blockchain.”
The research report pointed out that the “surge in transactions related to Runes contributed to higher fees and saw the hash price reach a record $183 per PH per day, effectively more than three times the expected rate of between $50-$55 per day.”
In the previous 3 Bitcoin cycles “the first difficulty adjustment, post halving, had seen a reduction, as less efficient miners were forced to switch off.”
These recent additional transaction fees “effectively provided further opportunities for more hash rate to go online, causing the first post-halving mining difficulty adjustment to actually increase, by 2%.”
As stated in the update, in April, Bitdeer produced “a total of 265 Bitcoin, equivalent to an average rate of 8.8 Bitcoin per day.”
This rate reflected a smaller-than-expected “reduction of 6.9% compared to the daily mining rate in March following the halving.”
The stable operations of the Gedu datacenter “throughout April significantly contributed to this positive performance.”
This operational stability was made possible “by a beneficial power pricing agreement, which effectively lowered costs and sustained uninterrupted activity.”
The Compass Mining report added that the company continues “to advance the construction of key data centers worldwide.”
In Tydal, Norway, construction of a 175MW immersion cooling data center “is underway and anticipated to conclude by mid-2025. Likewise, progress persists in Ohio, United States, with the development of a 221MW datacenter, with construction slated for completion in 2025.”
In Bhutan, construction of a substantial 500MW datacenter, “known as the Jigmeling Datacenter, commenced in March 2024.”
Currently, approximately 70% of the ground leveling work “for the project’s substation area has been accomplished, with full completion expected by May’s end.”
Additionally, groundwork for “the mining datacenter area began in May 2024. The procurement plan for the substation’s electrical equipment has been finalized with a supplier, with purchases scheduled for June 2024.”
The Compass Mining report further revealed that the Jigmeling Datacenter is “on track for completion by mid-2025.”
Progress continues unabated for Bitdeer’s mining Sealminer A1 machine project.
Having completed all laboratory testing and preparations “for batch production, the company is set to initiate small batch trial production in May and June 2024.”
These trial-produced mining machines “will undergo stability testing within the company’s mining data centers.”
Miner Performance Year to Date:
It should come as no shock to see the likes of Bitfarms, Hive Digital, IREN and SATO Technology are occupying leading positions, the Compass Mining report stated.
In 2023 the same four miners also “finished in those same positions with Bitfarms and Hive Digital finishing first and second.”
Bitfarms has continued to show “that same consistency under the leadership of Chief Mining Office Ben Gagnon, a notable feat when you consider the company operates in 4 countries with 11 sites.”
The gap between the bitcoin miners in the first few positions (as shown in detail in the full report here) is separated by relatively narrow margins.
The Compass Mining report concluded that companies trailing towards the lower end of the rankings would “be significantly closer if they had included their operational hash in some of their monthly mining updates.”
