Media: global logistics crisis disrupts bitcoin-miner supplies

North American mining companies, including Riot Blockchain, Bitfarms and Marathon Digital, have run into issues obtaining ordered equipment due to сбоев в глобальной логистике. The Block reports.

In the early part of last month, Texas-based Riot Blockchain said that 2,000 ASIC miners AntMiner S19J Pro had been shipped to it at the end of September. A further 4,000 devices were slated to be sent to the firm from Bitmain’s plant in Malaysia in early October.

However, according to the company’s report, over the month its fleet grew by just 1,624 miners, from 25,646 to 27,270.

The company expects that the previously ordered batch of 11,500 AntMiner S19J Pro units will be shipped to it in November.

Riot acknowledged logistics problems, but called their consequences “insignificant”.

Bitfarms, headquartered in Canada, planned to receive in September-December 7,230 AntMiner S19J Pro units from Bitmain. The first batch of 2,200 miners was expected by the end of September, but the company received only 540 devices.

By the end of October Bitfarms had deployed 2,869 S19j Pro units — 40% of the expected shipment.

“The remaining 4,361 Bitmain S19j Pro miners and 400 MicroBT M30S, whose shipments are planned for this year, are in transit and are expected to be received in several batches in November,” the company said.

As of September 1 Marathon Digital had 111,416 AntMiner units on order, with shipments expected to complete by the end of June 2022. This implies shipments of about 11,000 devices per month on average, but in the first month of autumn the company received only 5,400 miners.

“In September, global logistics problems began to affect deliveries, lengthening lead times and disrupting the initial deployment schedule,” the company said.

In October the company resorted to air transport, which reduced lead times by about 50% compared with the previous month. The company also partly managed to catch up, receiving over 15,000 miners during the period.

“Provided that this remains economically viable, we intend to continue the charter-flight practice to ensure timely delivery of our miners,” Marathon said.

In October bitcoin miners earned digital gold worth $1.72 billion, which is comparable to the record figure in March — $1.74 billion.