Core Scientific (CORZ), the world’s largest bitcoin miner, has raised its rates for hosting other companies’ machines to just under 10 cents per kilowatt hour, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
It is the latest price increase for Core Scientific, which has raised its rates by 20%-25% in recent months in response to rising energy costs. With the price of bitcoin remaining stubbornly around $20,000, the increased costs make it even more difficult for miners to break even.
Hosting is a service provided by data centers to cryptocurrency miners that allows them to store their mining rigs and mine digital assets for a fee without having to build the infrastructure themselves.
Core Scientific operates a hosting and mining business, with 22.5 exahash/second (EH/s) of computing power from its own and others in data centers across the United States. According to the most recent earnings report, the company is actually losing money on hosting operations.
A spokesperson for Core Scientific declined to comment on the specifics, but stated that “increased power costs are passed on” to customers.
While the cost of power has been rising, we expect it to fall again in the future, which will be reflected in our future rates.”
“All units outside of the [Bitmain Antminer] S19 XP [go] into negative gross margin territory,” Ethan Vera, chief operating officer at mining services firm Luxor Technologies, said.
“We expect hashprice [the value of 1 terahash/second of computing power per day] to hit some resistance points as high-cost operators and low-efficiency miners turn off,” he added.
Cheap hosting has become nearly impossible to find in the United States as electricity and natural gas prices have risen significantly. Meanwhile, miners in Europe have either shut down or relocated to the continent’s north in search of cheap power to stay afloat.
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