The fourth Bitcoin halving is currently due to occur on April 16, 2024, where block rewards will reduce from 6.25 Bitcoin to 3.125 Bitcoin, per block, said Anthony Power, a mining analyst at Compass Mining. As a result, miners face double the energy costs to mine a single Bitcoin.
In preparation for the halving, Bitcoin miners are looking to upgrade their hardware and software, with a number of North American Bitcoin miners making significant purchases of the most efficient miners available on the market. Marathon Digital (MARA) purchased 78,000 units of Antminer S19 XP mining machines, CleanSpark (CLSK) purchased 45,000 units, and Riot Platforms (RIOT) purchased 33,280 units.
Miners are also looking to manage their energy use optimally, putting aside cash reserves and hedging the risk on the financial markets. CleanSpark (CLSK) is developing automation that allows for the maximization of uptime and firmware that provides them the ability to underclock and overclock as the situation presents itself. Riot Platforms has taken advantage of being active in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) market, supplying power when needed and switching off their systems to help balance the grid.
In addition, miners are diversifying their businesses and incorporating additional revenue streams. Hut 8 (HUT) acquired the cloud and colocation data center business from TeraGo Inc., and Hive Digital Technologies (HIVE) and Iris Energy (IREN) are diversifying into high-performance computing, cloud, and artificial intelligence services.
In the event the Bitcoin price increases significantly before the halving, readers can more or less ignore the first three points (because a rising price makes everything better for miners), said Power.