Cipher Mining Starts Bitcoin Production at Texas Black Pearl Site, Aims for 23 EH/s Capacity
Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) has officially launched bitcoin mining operations at its new 300-megawatt (MW) Black Pearl data center in Texas, further expanding its growing network of mining facilities.
The company announced Monday that Phase I of Black Pearl is now running at 150 MW, delivering an initial hashrate of 2.5 exahashes per second (EH/s). Cipher expects that figure to climb rapidly to 9.6 EH/s by the end of the third quarter as new, more efficient mining rigs replace older hardware. The miner ultimately targets a total self-mining capacity of 23.1 EH/s once the entire buildout is complete.
The construction of the Black Pearl facility took 16 months, with Cipher crediting disciplined execution for keeping costs low despite challenging market conditions.
“We’re proud to be mining bitcoin ahead of schedule,” said Tyler Page, CEO of Cipher Mining, in a statement.
Beyond bitcoin mining, Cipher has plans to expand into high-performance computing (HPC), with a pipeline of up to 2.6 gigawatts (GW) that could power both mining and AI-focused workloads.
Cipher’s expansion comes amid growing competition in the bitcoin mining industry, as companies race to scale up and protect margins following the recent halving event that cut block rewards in half.
Shares of Cipher Mining fell 6.9% in regular trading on Monday but recovered slightly in after-hours trading, rising 1.9%.
