The bitcoin miner will continue to sell its bitcoin instead of taking on financing.Read MoreFeedzy
Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Iris Energy (IRIS) increased its hashrate expectation to 4.3 exahash/second (EH/s) for the year.
Previously, the Australia-based miner said its hashrate would increase to 3.7 EH/s by year end. The increase is because its site in Mackenzie, Canada, will be completed ahead of schedule, the firm said in an SEC filing on Tuesday.
Iris Energy was also planning to finish the construction of data centers in Childress county, Texas, that would house 3 EH/s of computing power by the end of 2023, and energize them in the first quarter of 2023, according to a May 11 investor presentation.
In the latest filing, Iris Energy hinted that its Texas site may be delayed. The firm removed its estimates for the completion of the Texas site, instead saying it would “continue preparatory construction activities” so that it can “scale up” once market conditions improve. “We expect to continue work at Childress to preserve optionality going into 2023 for our 600MW project in Texas,” the firm’s president Lindsay Ward said in the filing.
A company spokesperson repeated the language of the filing when CoinDesk asked to clarify if the Childress facility is on hold.
The bitcoin miner has already made a $130 million payment on mining rigs over the expected 4.3 EH/s, and has a contract to buy $400 million of machines from Bitmain.
Iris Energy also decided not to pursue any financing options to maintain “balance sheet flexibility” as market conditions deteriorate. Many miners have used at-the-market equity offerings and loans to fuel their expansion as they “hodl” bitcoin in the past few months. Yesterday, Bitfarms said it sold 3,000 BTC for $62 million in part to reduce a rolling credit facility from Galaxy Digital.
The firm will have $93 million in cash after it pays for the expansion to 4.3 EH/s and will continue to sell its bitcoin “on a daily basis,” according to the Tuesday filing.
Iris Energy said it has no “corporate-level debt” because all of its indebtedness comes from limited recourse financing that sits in the balance sheets of its wholly-owned subsidiaries, meaning loan defaults will not liquidate the entire company.
The firm has $41 million in debt, according to data compiled in a June 14 investors’ note by B. Riley.
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