Bitcoin Miner Phoenix Expands Capacity in Ethiopia by 30 MW

Abu Dhabi-based mining company Phoenix Group announced the establishment of a 30 MW cryptocurrency mining facility in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia.
The project was implemented in partnership with the local state-owned energy company Ethiopian Electric Power.
The data center, located in the Bole Lemi Industrial Park, is expected to add 1.9 EH/s to Phoenix’s current hash rate. The company described the expansion in the African nation as a step towards scaling its capacity to 1 GW.
According to the website, Phoenix is approximately halfway to achieving this goal. The firm operates over 100,000 ASIC miners deployed across sites in five countries.
In May, the company announced an increase in the capacity of its existing Ethiopian mining facility by 52 MW, bringing the country’s total to 132 MW.
With the Addis Ababa facility, Ethiopia accounts for roughly one-third of Phoenix’s hash rate.
In July, the country’s authorities, citing high demand for electricity from miners, announced plans to increase tariffs for businesses. Over four years, the price per kWh is expected to rise from approximately $0.015 to $0.075.

Experts: Miners Enter Survival Mode

Amid record network difficulty and Bitcoin price corrections to around $100,000, the hash price has fallen to the $40-42 per TH/s per day range.


According to experts, current metric values push even miners using the most efficient Antminer S21 from Bitmain or M66S from MicroBT to the brink of profitability at an average US rate of $0.05-0.07.
TheMinerMag confirmed that industry participants have entered survival mode, with most, especially smaller enterprises, teetering between decisions: “we earn a tiny margin” and “it’s time to shut down.”
Analysts noted that pressure on the cryptocurrency mining economy negatively impacts the entire supply chain. Equipment manufacturers, who largely relied on Bitcoin sales to sustain demand in the current cycle, are facing financial losses.
As an example, they cited a deal by American Bitcoin with Bitmain to purchase 17,000 U3S21EXPH units for $333 million. The mining company provided cryptocurrency as collateral at an agreed price of 120,000 per BTC.
Under the agreement, the coins do not immediately become Bitmain’s property. The portion of digital assets corresponding to the payment for delivered device batches becomes “redeemable” by American Bitcoin within 24 months from the equipment’s receipt date.
The scheme seemed logical amid a bull market and allowed the manufacturer to secure large orders. However, if the price of digital gold does not recover, American Bitcoin will have no incentive to redeem the collateral, and Bitmain risks receiving significantly less revenue than initially expected, experts highlighted.
They believe an additional signal of miners’ liquidity crisis is the increase in sales of mined Bitcoins. In October, CleanSpark sold 97% of its produced cryptocurrency.
MARA became another major industry player to abandon the strategy of retaining 100% of generated coins. In the third quarter, the largest public miner earned $9.6 million in interest from a loan portfolio of 10,377 BTC. However, a net loss of 101 BTC on a Two Prime trading account nearly nullified these positive results.