Phoenix signs $380m deal with WhatsMiner for green bitcoin mining
United Arab Emirates company Phoenix Group has unveiled new hardware devices from WhatsMiner, aiming to expand its portfolio of water cooling devices. According to the announcement made on December 7, the $380 million deal marks WhatsMiner's largest order in two years.
Under the deal, Phoenix received $136 million worth of mining equipment, with an additional $246 million option available. The WhatsMiner line of water coolers will be released in 2022 and are currently priced from $1,008 to $2,484, according to the company's website.
The WhatsMiner hydro cooling hardware uses a closed-loop water system, maintaining the quantity and quality of water in the tap. According to the company, water is a more effective heat transfer agent than air or oil, so the system provides more efficient heat transfer. Benefits of this system include reduced operating costs and less environmental impact, the company said.
As of 2022, Phoenix is the exclusive distributor of the WhatsMiner tool. This new collaboration, like Phoenix, is an important step in the establishment of high-performance computing (HPC) data centers. It is not clear where the equipment will be deployed, as Phoenix has mines not only in the United Arab Emirates, but also in Canada and the United States.
WhatsMiner is a brand owned by MicroBit, founded in 2016 by Zuoxing Yang, a former employee of Bitmain and one of the designers behind the Antminer S9. In October, WhatsMiner released its latest mining rig with water, immersion and air conditioning systems.
Phoenix is not only the exclusive distributor of WhatsMiner hardware, but also the official Middle East distributor of Bitmain. The company traded on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) on December 5, with its share price opening at 2.25 UAE dirhams ($0.60), up more than 50% from its initial public offering (IPO) price of 1.50 dirhams ($0.41). Subscriptions for the Phoenix IPO exceeded the offer 33 times, with 907,323,529 shares sold for 1.3 billion dirhams ($371 million).
Crypto mining companies are facing difficult times since the beginning of 2022 due to the increase in energy costs and the decrease in the price of Bitcoin. For example, Canaan Mining Company recently raised capital due to a sharp decline in earnings.
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