Crypto Miner Hive Blockchain Selling Ether to Pay for Intel Mining Rigs

Crypto miner Hive Blockchain (HIVE) sold about 10,000 ether (ETH), the native token of the Ethereum blockchain, to pay for Intel (INTC) bitcoin mining rigs, as most miners are starting to sell some of their mined digital assets to pay for their operating costs.

• “We significantly reduced our ETH holdings to fund our Intel strategic relationship and the building of new bitcoin miners,'' the Vancouver, British Columbia-based miner said in a statement. Hive said it decided “it was prudent to take some profits in ETH due to its higher volatility.”
• The miner will continue to sell ether from time to time to fund the company’s long-term bitcoin (BTC) mining goals. However, Hive said it will look to replace the ether it has sold in the near future as the company is still expanding its ether mining capacity.
• Hive is expected to test units of Intel’s mining rigs this month, with prototype production expected for late summer and mass production scheduled to launch this fall.
• Hive is among the first miners to receive Intel’s second-generation, bitcoin-specific mining chips, which are more efficient than those of most rivals.
• Hive said that it mined 273.4 bitcoins in May, about 2% higher than April, and 2,694 ether, 6.2% more than April. On a combined basis, it produced 459.2 bitcoin-equivalent in May, similar to last month’s 458.3 output.
• The company also expects to have a bitcoin-equivalent hashrate of 6.2 exahash per second (EH/s) in next 12 months, up from its current capacity of 3.4 EH/s.
• Hive’s shares are down about 2.8% on Monday, while bitcoin's price has risen about 5% in the last 24 hours.

Read more: Hive to Buy Intel Mining Chip That Can Raise Hashrate by 95%