Orders continue to roll in for top bitcoin mining manufacturers. But what’s the status quo on their delivery times, backlog, and do they have new products? Let’s dig in.
Here we will look at Bitmain, MicroBT, Canaan, EBang, Innosilicon, and touch quickly on ePIC and Bit Mining. Manufacturers are sorted in descending order of machine availability and efficiency profiles.
Note that all top bitcoin mining manufacturers are China-based, and only specialized ASIC hardware which uses the double SHA-256 proof-of-work algorithm can be used to mine bitcoins.
Bitmain
Bitmain manufacture Antminers. They source their 5/7 nanometer (nm) microprocessor chips from Taiwan’s TSMC. They currently have no products available for purchase on their website, but the following models are in production.
| Model | Terahash | Watts | Efficiency | Est. Reseller Price USD |
| T19 | 84-88 | 3150 | 37.5 | $11,000 |
| S19 | 95 | 3250 | 34.2 | $12,000 |
| S19 Pro | 110 | 3250 | 29.5 | $16,000 |
| S19j | 90 | 3100 | 34.4 | $11,000 |
| S19j Pro | 100 | 3050 | 30.5 | $14,000 (June) |
Bitmain are rumored to have produced over a quarter million S19 and S19j units this year in their manufacturing plants in China and Malaysia. This is despite recent claims that relations with TSMC were breaking down. Special releases of the new generation S19j and S19j Pro models have allowed more customers to buy in this bull run, amidst their large backlog of institutional orders.
Institutional miners like VBit Technologies, Marathon Digital Holdings, Integrated Ventures and Wattum, GreenHaus Blockchain, RIOT Blockchain, and Core Scientific expect Bitmain deliveries through 2022. Additionally, RIOT and Core Scientific have just upped their orders. Chinese firms like TAO Blockchain and independent resellers have also made large purchases.
However, customers should still expect some delays. Bitmain’s website reminds:
“Affected by the COVID-19 situation, logistics operations of shipping carriers and delivery time schedules are subject to change based on circumstances.”
Further, some individual customers report to Miner Daily that their orders were cancelled for the S19j model because they had not paid in full. Bitmain’s purchase page informs customers that machines are shipped out on a first-paid-first-ship basis. Nonetheless, Antminers are available through resellers.
Lastly, Bitmain have announced the imminent release of the Antminer E9, an Ethhash ASIC machine for ethereum mining. (…but, … but… Vitalik said “ethhash is ASIC resistant…”)
MicroBT
MicroBT are the manufacturers of WhatsMiner. They source their 8 nm microprocessor chips from South Korea’s Samsung. They currently have no products available for purchase on their website, but the following models are in production in Asia.
| Model | Terahash | Watts | Efficiency | Est. Reseller Price USD |
| M30S | 88 | 3344 | 38 | $11,000 |
| M30S+ | 100 | 3400 | 34 | $14,000 |
| M30S++ | 112 | 3472 | 31 | $17,000 |
| M31S | 74 | 3312 | 44 | $8,000 |
| M31S+ | 80 | 3360 | 42 | $9,000 |
| M32S | 66 | 3312 | 50 | $6,000 |
| M32S | 68 | 3312 | 48 | $6,000 |
A miner flash sale also took place on their website on March 30th with a two week ship out time. See their message board for news of future pop-up sales.
Although WhatsMiner reports difficulties with chip supply in the past, they have been delivering to customers. Their website alerts customers of potential setbacks:
“Special notice: Dear customer, due to the corona virus, now the flights, regional transportation restrictions, etc all kinds of unstable factors, the customer who choose express delivery for shipment , the cargo will not be restricted to send DHL, will consider available delivery method at current which could delivery, such as Fedex /UPS or other channels. And at this period , it may slower than usual shipment, arrival time will not be guaranteed, please understanding. We will try our best to choose the fastest way to arrange the transportation. Thank you.”
Institutional miners including Blockstream, Hut 8, Bitfarms and Foundry, and Compute North are expecting orders through 2022. Excitingly, MicroBT’s marketing manager Elsa Zhao showed some of these mining rigs in pre-delivery testing on her twitter feed.
For the past three years MicroBT has been looking into going public on the NY stock exchange, but hasn’t pulled the trigger. And unfortunately Bitmain is suing MicroBT for a second time for IP theft of their Antminer S7 and S9 ASIC chip design. Hopefully legal troubles will not delay WhatsMiner shipments as it did in 2019.
Canaan
Canaan is the oldest of the bitcoin mining manufacturers and make solid machines. They currently produce the Avalon 1246 model which hashes 90 TH/s at 3420 Watts. The A1246’s efficiency profile is 38 joules/terahash, and the machine sells for around $10,000 USD. Since November 2019, Canaan has been listed on the New York stock exchange as NASDAQ: CAN.
Like Bitmain, Canaan sources its 7 nm microprocessing chips from Taiwan’s TSMC. In March 2021, TSMC announced that due to a global chip shortage and the Corona pandemic, it would limit ASIC chips to bitcoin mining manufacturers who naturally demand more from foundries during bull runs. Canaan, on the other hand, ensures its customers and investors that it has various sources for chips, dubbing its approach as a ‘multi-fab strategy’, ‘where we collaborate and work with a number of leading chip manufacturers to reduce supply-chain risks’. Canaan are also thought to source chips from SMIC.
Over the next two years institutional miners are expecting deliveries totaling well over 100,000 AvalonMiners. These companies include: Core Scientific, HIVE Blockchain, Genesis Digital Assets, Mawson Infrastructure Group Inc., as well as reports of Drone Energy, Bitfury, and Arctos Capital. Canaan shares on Twitter that deliveries are being carried out, however, some miners report to Miner Daily that they are still waiting on hardware due in March.
Unfortunately, like MicroBT, Canaan is also being sued. According to the Complaint, Canaan made misleading statements to its investors regarding ongoing supply chain problems and revenue drops in the fourth quarter of 2020. Hopefully this does not delay deliveries of A1246s. On a side-note, Canaan, like Bitmain, also manufacture Artificial Intelligence (AI) machines.
EBang
EBang has been listed on NASDAQ as EBON since June of 2020. During last year’s bear market EBang dropped off most miner’s radar because their EBit miner efficiency profiles were high. Previous EBit models utilized 10nm Samsung chips, but the company themselves report completing R&D on 7/8 nm ASIC rigs. Ebang hopes to regain a competitive edge in the multi-billion dollar bitcoin mining hardware industry.
Currently two models are purchasable on their website:
- EBit E10.6: 16 TH/s, 1760 Watts, 110 efficiency, $600 USD
- EBit E12: 44 TH/s, 2508 Watts, 57 efficiency, $2,000 USD
Hardware shipments are estimated to take up to 4 months post-purchase.
EBang also released a beta version of an invite-only cryptocurrency exchange on March 15, 2021. Their CEO Mr. Dong Hu says that the new exchange will accelerate the company’s future development.
Innosilicon
Innosilicon makes sturdy bitcoin mining machines and have been a top manufacturer in the past. However, all their bitcoin ASIC miners are sold out on their website. They currently produce the T3+Pro 67 TH, 3300 W, and the T3+ 57 TH, 3300 W, which have efficiency profiles of 49 and 58 respectively.
Like Bitmain and Cannan, Innosilicon use TSMC chips. Whilst their T3 models use a 10 nm chip, reports have floated around for the past couple years that they are conducting R&D and design of 5/7 nm processes. The company also produce mixed signal IPs and altcoins miners using 5-180 nm nodes from various foundries.
Like Ebang, Innosilicon fell by the wayside during last year’s bear market as their efficiency profiles are slightly higher than their competitors. Further, microchip shortages have caused production bottlenecks for the company since 2019. Moreover, their headquarters are in Wuhan which was the epicenter of the Corona outbreak, where strict lockdowns persisted for months in 2020.
ePIC and Bit Mining
Lastly, many have asked us about Argo’s and Core Scientific’s deal with Canadian ASIC manufacturer ePIC Blockchain Technologies. According to their own website they currently only manufacture 2.2 TH/s Sia alt-coin mining rigs in China. As we know, bitcoin ASIC chips are hard to come by and only top bitcoin mining manufacturers who have done the R&D, development, and production prep have access to the top foundries. So as always, we encourage our readers to ask questions and do their own research when investing in bitcoin mining operations or operators.
And finally, there was this news. Remember 500.com who bought BTC.com pool and Bit Deer cloud mining from Bitmain back in February 2021? There are claims they will be manufacturing a new 7nm ASIC bitcoin mining machine after their acquisition of Bee Computing Hong Kong Ltd. Yet, we have not seen further news. Perhaps it was just a rumor?
Summary
We hope that the bitcoin mining manufacturers deliver soon as many Bitcoin enthusiasts have invested in institutional miners, and many independent miners and resellers await delivery.
