Bitcoin ( BTC ) miner Hive Digital is upgrading its infrastructure as it begins construction of facilities in Paraguay, the fourth country it will operate in. The Nasdaq-listed Canadian miner has purchased 6,500 Canaan Avalon A1566 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for delivery from December through March 2025.

Hive Digital revs up

The first 500 new ASICs were delivered in the second week of November, with four more shipments coming through the first quarter of 2025. They will boost Hive Digital’s hashrate from 5.6 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 6 EH/s by March, the company said .

Shortly after the completion of the ASICs delivery, 30 megawatts of mining capacity is expected to come online in Paraguay, bringing Hive Digital’s hashrate to 8 EH/s by the end of the second quarter. The new ASICs will boost Hive Digital’s efficiency from its current 22.3 Joules per terahash (J/TH) to 20.5 J/TH. Canaan chairman and CEO Nangeng Zhang said:

“HIVE has been able to maximize the utilization rate of its mining sites, resulting in some of the highest Bitcoin production per active hashrate in the industry.”

“HIVE is an important partner, especially given their commitment to transparency in business and their strong focus on ESG principles,” Zhang continued. Canaan announced the sale of 3,800 Avalon A1566I Immersion Cooling Miners to miner CleanSpark at the beginning of the month.

Related: BTC miners are ideal energy consumers, but regulators need to catch up — Hive

Hive Digital changes with the times

Hive Digital’s expansion to Paraguay was announced in July . When the Paraguay facility is completed, it will have a capacity of 100 MW, and Hive Digital will have a hashrate of 12.5 EH/s and a fleet efficiency of 17.6 J/TH.

Hive Digital buys 6,500 ASICs, starts Paraguay construction image 0

Source: HIVE Digital Technologies

In addition to Paraguay, Hive Digital has facilities in Canada with over 100 MW of capacity and in Sweden and Iceland, where they have 46 MW combined.

Hive Digital rethought its business model after the Ethereum Merger, when the blockchain transitioned from proof-of-work, which Hive Digital had contributed to, to proof-of-stake. At that time, Hive Digital repurposed Nvidia graphic processing units (GPUs) for artificial intelligence. It now operates around 38,000 Nvidia GPUs.

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