Hut 8 begins construction on 63MW crypto mining site in Texas

North American digital asset miner Hut 8 has begun construction on a new 63-megawatt mining facility in Culberson County, Texas, its fifth United States mining location.

The new facility is expected to be open for business with miners online by Q2 2024.

It’s a great day to build, esp. when it’s at a 40% savings over buying turnkey sites! Construction is underway at our newest site in Culberson County, TX: expected to come online in Q2, the 63 MW site is expected to have up to 3.6 EH/s of self-mining capacity. More info in our… pic.twitter.com/LEG347mrEu— Hut 8 (@Hut8Corp) February 27, 2024

Mining cost reductions

According to a press release, Hut 8 expects to be able to mine Bitcoin (BTC) at 30% lower rates than its cost to mine at its other sites in Texas and Nebraska.

Per Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot, the costs of setting up the new facility were substantially lower as well:

“Compared to the benchmark of approximately $460,000 per MW set by recent acquisitions in the area, our all-in cost to design and build the Culberson County site is expected to be less than $275,000 per MW. This represents a savings of more than 40%, or approximately $18,500,000 in upfront development costs per every 100 MW of expansion.

Step 1:Buy a new site
Step 2:Build site for 40% cheaper than your peers (& cheaper than the last site you built sold for)
Step 3:Reduce cost per coin by 30%
Step 4:Increase self mining exahash
Step 5:Rinse & repeat #Bitcoin #BitcoinMining $HUT …— Sue Ennis (@bigsuey) February 27, 2024

USBTC merger and company turmoil

As Cointelegraph recently reported, Canada-based Hut 8 and US Bitcoin Corp. formed a new company via a merger in December 2023. After the reported $725 million merger, the company resumed operations under the name Hut 8 as a U.S.-domiciled corporation headquartered in Miami, Florida.

Hut 8’s efforts toward expansion come at a tumultuous time for the company. It was recently accused of a “pump and dump” by JCapital Research, a firm claiming on its website to have a focus on short-selling for profit.

In response, Hut 8 called JCapital a “self-proclaimed group of biased activists who clearly disclose that they will profit if a company’s share price declines.”

Related: Hut 8 CEO steps down just weeks after short seller accusations

The company also finds itself embroiled in a class-action lawsuit concerning allegations that it “made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) one of USBTC’s largest shareholders is an undisclosed related party; (ii) USBTC’s core asset has historically failed to provide energy and high-speed internet; and (iii) the profitability of certain USBTC assets were overstated.”

Update 12:55 PST 2/27: The article was changed to reflect only a single class action suit had been filed again