ChainCatcher news, mining company Stronghold Digital has violated energy market rules while prioritizing its Bitcoin mining business, agreeing to pay over $1.4 million in fines and refunds.Stronghold has a contractual obligation to provide available power to the PJM grid to help ensure the reliability of the grid. However, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's enforcement office found that Stronghold failed to meet this obligation from June 2021 to May 2022, instead diverting power to its Bitcoin mining operations.Stronghold and Scrubgrass will repay PJM $678,635 in improperly earned capacity revenue and pay a civil penalty of $741,365 to the U.S. Treasury. The company must also submit compliance reports for at least two years and provide market rules training for its personnel.

ChainCatcher news, Cango Inc. saw its stock price rise by 280% due to its entry into the Bitcoin mining business, with two board members planning to sell $2 million worth of company stock.According to new documents released on Thursday, Cango CEO Jiayuan Lin and director Zhipeng Song plan to sell 100,000 and 200,000 shares of the company stock, respectively, with the sale expected around December 20. The total market value of the shares being sold is estimated at $2.07 million.Cango was founded in 2010 as a digital platform for providing auto loans. It went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2018. Last month, Cango announced the acquisition of 32 EH/s Bitcoin mining machines from Bitmain as part of its entry into the Bitcoin mining sector. In November alone, the company mined 363.9 BTC. This move triggered a 290% surge in Cango's stock price, jumping from around $2.80 to $8.00.

According to ChainCatcher news, as reported by Decrypt, Bitcoin company Swan has filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, accusing its former employees (including former executives) of colluding with Tether to steal its Bitcoin mining business worth billions of dollars. Swan claims that these former employees stole the company's highly proprietary Bitcoin mining monitoring software code, vendor and business partner resources, and collectively resigned to establish a competing company named Proton Management.The lawsuit alleges that Tether played a significant role in this conspiracy by sending Swan a "default notice," providing "legal cover" for this hostile takeover. Swan is seeking a permanent injunction from the court against Proton to prevent further interference with Swan's mining operations and is demanding that the former employees return the stolen equipment and "confidential materials." Swan has requested a jury trial, with the specific amount of damages to be determined at trial.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Canadian Bitcoin mining company Cathedra Bitcoin is halting its seven-year mining operations and adopting a new strategy: to emulate MicroStrategy by purchasing as much Bitcoin as possible on the open market.In the "Bitcoin Treasury Strategy Memo" dated September 16, Cathedra explained that under the new plan, "all capital allocation decisions" will now be based on maximizing the company's Bitcoin reserves on a per-share basis—this is the "most important" metric for many major shareholders.Cathedra stated that Bitcoin-based mining operations have not provided sufficient shareholder value. By market capitalization, 9 out of the 10 largest Bitcoin mining companies now hold less Bitcoin per share than three years ago, adding, "Meanwhile, other publicly traded companies have adopted clear policies to increase the per-share Bitcoin price, most notably MicroStrategy, which has been rewarded by the stock market."Cathedra indicated that it will shift to developing data operation centers to generate "predictable cash flow" to purchase more Bitcoin, and will retain the Bitcoin produced by its existing mining operations, suggesting that the company will not completely abandon mining.Data shows that the company currently holds 23 Bitcoins, valued at $2.5 million, making it the 45th largest Bitcoin corporate holder. Cathedra's statement indicates that the company plans to adhere to its Bitcoin strategy in the long term and notes that it is currently in the "early stages of a decades-long trend," where Bitcoin will become the "dominant global reserve asset."

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, investment bank Architect Partners pointed out in its latest report that the Bitcoin mining industry is in a consolidation phase, a trend triggered by the halving event in April this year.The report emphasizes that mining companies are seeking to acquire large scalable data center capacity and obtain low-cost electricity and capital. The planned acquisition of Stronghold Digital Mining by Bitfarms is a typical example of the recent merger and acquisition trend. The report's authors believe that hostile takeovers are not common in talent-dependent technology and financial services industries, but the Bitcoin mining industry is different, as its core assets are physical facilities, power resources, and generally available computing equipment. However, this consolidation trend contradicts the original intention of Bitcoin's creator, Satoshi Nakamoto, who hoped that anyone could participate in mining without a concentration of computing power. The impact of the current centralization in the mining industry remains to be seen.

ChainCatcher news, according to CoinDesk, investment bank Jefferies stated in a research report on Monday that due to a 2% increase in Bitcoin prices, a 5% decrease in network mining difficulty, and adjustments made to the market's expectations regarding the halving, Bitcoin mining profits in June were higher than in May.Analyst Jonathan Petersen wrote: "From the most obvious direct impact of the halving in May, June was a month of moderate recovery in (mining profits)."

ChainCatcher news, according to Bitcoin.com, the Paraguayan Bitcoin mining industry has responded to the National Electricity Administration (ANDE) participating in the closure of several illegal Bitcoin mining sites. Bruno Vaccotti, the public affairs director of the Bitcoin mining company Penguin, revealed the existence of three "vulture contracts," which have slowed the development of the Bitcoin mining business in Paraguay.In a radio interview, Vaccotti acknowledged that illegal mining operations have harmed ANDE's revenue, but he criticized the agency's statements regarding Bitcoin mining activities. He stated that Penguin pays $850,000 in electricity bills each month, which is nearly 50% of the $2 million loss that ANDE claims is caused by illegal crypto mining."Vulture contracts" are agreements signed by ANDE with other undisclosed third-party Bitcoin miners, affecting the electricity supply to new mining sites and causing losses to the country. Vaccotti noted that these energy-intensive contracts are often signed by foreign investors seeking speculation.The energy allocated to these parties is prevented from being used for these operations, thereby harming the potential for legitimate Bitcoin mining investors to utilize the energy involved. Vaccotti emphasized that this could have a greater impact than the illegal activities that ANDE is currently investigating.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Dirk Röder, the Head of Web3 Infrastructure and Solutions at T-Mobile Germany, stated during a speech at BTC Prague, "Since 2023, we have been running Bitcoin nodes, and we are also running Bitcoin Lightning nodes. I want to tell you a little secret, we will soon be engaging in digital currency mining activities."

ChainCatcher news, according to official information, Bitcoin mining company Riot Platform recently announced its third-quarter production and operational update: this quarter produced a total of 1,106 bitcoins, bringing the total production for the year to 4,996; additionally, the total revenue for this quarter was $51.9 million, with a hash rate of 10.9 EH/s, setting a new historical high.Furthermore, as of the end of this quarter, Riot held $290 million in cash and 7,327 bitcoins, totaling nearly $500 million in liquidity.

ChainCatcher news, cryptocurrency mining company BIT Mining released its unaudited financial report for the second quarter, as of June 30, 2023. BIT Mining produced 29.4 million DOGE and 16,027 LTC in the second quarter (with revenue of approximately $3.6 million), and the Bitcoin output was 22.6 BTC (with revenue of approximately $600,000).In addition, BIT Mining's revenue for the second quarter of 2023 was $74.1 million, a decrease of $121.4 million compared to the second quarter of 2022, representing a year-on-year decline of 62.1%, but an increase of 1.6% compared to the first quarter of this year.The operating loss for the second quarter of 2023 was $1.5 million, a decrease of $19 million compared to the second quarter of 2022, and a decrease of $4.5 million compared to the first quarter of 2023. BIT Mining's net loss for the second quarter of 2023 was $900,000, a year-on-year decrease of 95.1% and a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 81.6%.

ChainCatcher news, according to News.bitcoin, since Satoshi Nakamoto created the Bitcoin blockchain, the Bitcoin network has processed over 800,000 blocks.The top rank is held by unknown miners from 99 different mining pools, including Satoshi Nakamoto and early miners, who have collectively discovered 227,800 blocks, accounting for 28.37% of the total.F2 pool is the mining pool that has discovered the most blocks since 2009, with 80,364 blocks found, accounting for approximately 10.01% of the total. Antpool ranks second with 75,829 blocks, just behind F2 pool, and ranks third, accounting for 9.44% of the total. The subsequent ranks are occupied by Btc.com pool (39,996 blocks), Braiins Pool (39,647 blocks), and Viabtc (33,194 blocks).

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, Tether's developers are preparing to release a new JavaScript library designed to transmit commands and signals to Bitcoin mining hardware including WhatsMiner, AvalonMiner, and Antminer. Certain parts of the mining software will be available on an open-source platform in the future. This mining tool enables communication between components within the BTC mining ecosystem, facilitating interaction in a simplified, secure, attack-resistant, and cost-effective manner.

ChainCatcher news, Kyrgyzstan President Japarov accepted an interview with the Kabar National News Agency, answering questions about the country's virtual asset mining sites for hydropower station construction, confirming the allowance for cryptocurrency mining activities in areas with power generation capacity permits, generating revenue for the electricity sector. During winter power shortages, the operations of these mining sites will be suspended, operating for the remaining nine months.The President of Kyrgyzstan stated that crypto mining can generate millions of dollars in tax revenue; for example, the mining site in Kemin transferred 480 million soms to the electricity sector in six months, paying 225 million soms in taxes.

ChainCatcher news, the Argentine Ministry of Economy has released a list of electricity rates, which will increase the electricity costs for cryptocurrency mining. The document stipulates that the cost for mining activities is 17,240 Argentine pesos per megawatt-hour, approximately 63.3 USD. Meanwhile, residential energy enjoys a 70% subsidy, priced at about 11.3 USD per megawatt-hour. The revised rates will take effect on August 1 and will last until October 31, 2023, at which point they may be changed again.

According to ChainCatcher news and The Block Data, Bitcoin mining revenue reached $760 million in June, a decrease of about 17% month-over-month. Additionally, Ethereum block validator revenue decreased by 29% month-over-month to $112 million in June, with transaction fees amounting to $29.4 million. (source link)

ChainCatcher news, Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital (MARA) has formed a joint venture with digital asset service provider Zero Two to create the first large-scale Bitcoin mining operation in the Middle East. Zero Two, headquartered in Abu Dhabi, is a digital asset infrastructure development company focused on supporting the power grid of the Middle Eastern capital.This new project, named Abu Dhabi Global Market Joint Venture (ADGM), will initially develop two mining sites with a total capacity of 250 megawatts (MW). It will utilize excess energy from Abu Dhabi to power immersion-cooled mining machines. The initial investment is approximately $406 million, with Zero Two holding 80% of ADGM and Marathon holding 20%. (CoinDesk)