Hut 8 expands Bitmain partnership with launch of next-gen ASIC miner, boosting hash rate by 80%

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 Corp. announced Thursday the expansion of its partnership with mining rig manufacturer Bitmain Technologies with the launch of the U3S21EXPH, a next-generation ASIC miner.

Hut 8 plans to deploy the model in the second quarter of 2025 through a 15 exahash per second hosting agreement leveraging custom data center infrastructure developed in-house.

“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,” said Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot in a statement. “The U3S21EXPH will be the first miner from BITMAIN broadly commercialized with DLC cooling within a U form factor, making it rack-ready like traditional data center hardware. This innovation bridges critical engineering gaps between Bitcoin mining and AI data center infrastructure in both form factor and cooling technology, and we believe this convergence will enable us to unlock significant synergies and flexibility going forward.”

"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," said Irene Gao, vice president of mining of BITMAIN. "We are excited to deepen our relationship as we continue to define the future of mining."

The initial agreement comprises of roughly 15 EH/s and is expected to increase Hut 8’s hash rate under management from 18.5 EH/s to around 33.5 EH/s, according to the release. Hut's 8 stock (ticker HUT) was trading higher by more than 7% at publication time.

Bitcoin miner revenue has taken a steep drop following the latest Bitcoin halving event this past April. As mining companies prepare for the challenges ahead , many are focusing on efficiency, cost control and strategic investments, while managing the increased difficulty in the Bitcoin network.