Hut 8 partners with BITMAIN to launch new ASIC miner with direct chip cooling

Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Hut 8 and mining hardware manufacturer BITMAIN announced the expansion of their partnership on Sept. 19 with the launch of the U3S21EXPH, a next-generation ASIC miner.

Hut 8 plans to deploy the model in Q2 2025 through an approximately 15 exahash per second hosting agreement.

The U3S21EXPH is the first ASIC miner mass-commercialized by BITMAIN to feature direct liquid-to-chip cooling within a U form factor. According to the announcement, it can achieve up to 860 terahash at an efficiency of 13 joules per terahash.

Key advancements include the introduction of DLC cooling technology, evolution to a “U” form factor compatible with HPC-style architecture, and the opportunity for greater supply chain synchronization across Bitcoin mining and HPC data centers.

“Our partnership with BITMAIN has allowed us to advance our thinking on ASIC compute and create a more scalable model for data center design as we expand our footprint,” Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8, stated.

The U3S21EXPH will be commercialized through a hosting agreement between Hut 8 and BITMAIN, featuring a fixed hosting fee and an option for Hut 8 to purchase all or a portion of the hosted machines within six months of energization.

The initial agreement comprises approximately 15 exahash per second (EH/s) and is expected to increase Hut 8’s hashrate under management from 18.5 EH/s to nearly 33.5 EH/s.

If Hut 8 executes the purchase option for the entire 15 EH/s hosting deployment, the company’s self-mining hashrate is expected to increase from 5.6 EH/s to roughly 20.6 EH/s.

Irene Gao, Vice President of Mining of BITMAIN, commented, “Hut 8’s technical expertise, operating strength, and track record of innovation made this partnership a natural evolution of our relationship as we began the journey of developing next-generation ASIC technology.”

Ramping up efforts

In its report on its August operations, Hut 8 revealed a 0.1 EH/s increase in its metrics. However, the total amount of Bitcoin mined last month fell to 87 BTC, from the 105 BTC mined in July. That’s a 17% drop.

Moreover, according to Hut 8 results for Q2, the company amassed a net loss of $71.9 million. Yet, the largest fraction was related to digital assets fair value adjustment of $71.8 million.

Nevertheless, despite the cost to mine a single BTC nearly doubling from Q2 2023 to last quarter, the Bitcoin mining firm registered a nearly 72% revenue year-on-year increase, totaling $35.2 million from April to June.

This article first appeared at Crypto Briefing