HASHBRANCH AND MERKLE STANDARD DEPLOY MASSIVE 1.3 EXAHASH BITCOIN MINING OPERATION
End-of-life hardware strategy creates win-win scenario for miners and hosting facilities in fluctuating markets
SAN DIEGO, April 16, 2025 (Bitwire) -- Merkle Standard, a leading sustainable cryptocurrency mining company, and Hashbranch, the software-enabled Bitcoin mining investment platform, today announced the successful deployment of 13,000 Bitcoin mining units, representing 1.3 Exahash of computing power across 30MW of capacity.
The strategic collaboration, which progressed from initial discussions to full implementation through an accelerated timeline, demonstrates both companies' commitment to creating innovative solutions for institutional mining operations. The seamless execution highlights the operational synergy and aligned vision that characterizes the partnership.
'This partnership with Hashbranch has allowed us to monetize our available rack space at several locations while implementing a unique profit-sharing model that helps all parties navigate hashprice fluctuations,' said Barry An, Senior Vice President at Allrise Capital, the investment management firm behind Merkle Standard. 'Hashbranch's ability to match the hardware profile and optimal contract terms resulted in an exceptionally efficient process, moving from introduction to signed agreement in under 45 days.'
The agreement includes options to expand the deployment to 23,000 units, further solidifying the relationship between the companies and demonstrating confidence in the innovative hosting model.
'By focusing on end-of-life strategies for older Bitcoin mining equipment, we've created a framework that unlocks maximum value regardless of market conditions,' said Tom Merkle, Co-Founder & CEO at Hashbranch. 'Our role in facilitating this agreement demonstrates our ability to align incentives and create sustainable value for institutional mining operations.'
Hashbranch provided crucial market intelligence and contract structuring expertise throughout the process, helping both parties accurately assess value and expedite the agreement. The collaboration highlights Hashbranch's growing role in servicing the professional needs of larger institutional clients with specialized requirements through market analysis, strategic matchmaking, and innovative deal structuring.
For more information about Merkle Standard's sustainable mining operations or Hashbranch's infrastructure solutions, please visit merklestandard.com or hashbranch.com .
About Merkle Standard
Merkle Standard is a premier digital asset mining company based in Washington state with operating sites across the country. The company has a distinct focus on developing North America's most efficient vertically integrated self-mining platform and hosting services. In addition, Merkle Standard specializes in rapid data center development consistently executing buildouts that take less than one year from groundbreaking to mining. At their flagship site in Northeast Washington, Merkle Standard have been operating more than 20 megawatts of water-cooled ('hydro') ASICs since fall of 2022, earning the company accolades as the largest successful operation of 'hydros' in the United States.
About Hashbranch
Hashbranch is the #1 hosting platform for U.S. Bitcoin mining. The company provides enterprise-grade hardware brokerage services to institutional clients worldwide. Leveraging advanced market intelligence, they connect miners with premier hardware and hosting solutions that maximize investment returns. Their proprietary software platform transforms the entire mining lifecycle, pioneering innovative strategies that extend ASIC profitability well beyond conventional industry timelines.
Media Contacts:
Merkle Standard
Laura Verity
[email protected]
509 550 7292
Hashbranch
Deepak Atyam
[email protected]
562 600 0598
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Could Bitcoin Actually Hit $200,000 Before 2026?
Bitcoin could nearly double $200,000 before the end of this year. It will still be a good investment if it misses that mark. Institutional investors are the ones driving its pricing for the moment. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) trades for about $105,000 (as of June 19), yet credible analysts are mapping a route to its price surpassing $200,000 by the end of 2025. For reference, a 90% price gain to $200,000 would raise Bitcoin's market cap to about $3.9 trillion. That target looks unduly aggressive only if you ignore two simple forces: a sharply lower trickle of new coins, and a sharply higher amount of institutional demand. Both are already affecting the coin's price right now. Let's see what the numbers actually say and take a moment to understand why the forecast for $200,000 isn't unreasonable at all. As always, understanding the supply and demand dynamics of Bitcoin is the first step to appreciating how responsive its price is likely to be relative to what buyers are bidding for it. Every four years, the Bitcoin network halves the block reward, cutting the flow of fresh coins. The most recent halving on April 20, 2024, reduced the reward such that the total annual new issuance declined from roughly 328,500 coins to about 164,000. With 19.9 million coins already mined out of a maximum of 21 million possible, new supply now grows less than 0.8% per year. In April 2028, the next halving will constrain supply even further, and that fact is something that most market participants are aware of already, implying that potential buyers have a significant incentive to procure their allocation sooner rather than later. The tiny drip of new supply today is already meeting a hungry horde of demand. Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have hauled in more than $46 billion cumulatively, including a six-day streak of $1.8 billion in mid-June. Those funds, institutional investors, and publicly traded companies together now command about 6% of the coin's total circulating supply. At today's price, that capital removes roughly 360,000 coins from the public float, which is equivalent to more than two years of issuance at the current block reward. If the inflows simply persist at half their recent pace, the available supply could tighten by another 2% to 3% before 2026. And a shrinking float usually forces prices significantly higher because the number of willing sellers dries up faster than the number of willing buyers. In other words, crypto market euphoria is not a precondition to Bitcoin soaring. The only needed ingredient is buyers who are willing to convert fiat currencies into ETF shares just a bit faster than miners are capable of creating fresh coins. And right now, that speed differential is widening, so the conditions are ripe for the price to squeeze upward. While supply dynamics explain why the crypto's price can rise, macro tailwinds explain why demand might keep accelerating. On that front, U.S. core inflation cooled in May to its lowest reading since 2023. The Federal Reserve has held its benchmark interest rate steady since March; many investors are expecting that the Fed will cut rates a bit before next year. It's possible that lower real yields will make a scarce, non-yielding asset like Bitcoin more attractive. Separately, regulatory clarity is also improving abroad, which will create more institutional buyers. The European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework began licensing major exchanges in mid-June, opening a harmonized 27-nation market. Clear guidelines for competition reduce regulatory risk and invite European pension funds and other institutional investors to buy in, many of which had waited on the sidelines. Nonetheless, the path to $200,000 is not necessarily a straight shot, given the current geopolitical and economic instability, as well as major uncertainties in U.S. trade policy. A surprise liquidity crunch, perhaps sparked by a geopolitical shock or a renewed tariff-driven inflation spike, could dull risk appetite and force some selling, which could temporarily damage sentiment about the coin. Political risk matters, too. U.S. lawmakers still debate crypto taxation and custody rules. A hostile bill could freeze ETF creation or raise costs, muting demand. Assuming no severe shock, however, the chances of Bitcoin surpassing $200,000 in 2026 look realistic, if perhaps a bit ambitious. If ETFs absorb another $50 billion of the supply by late 2025, they would remove roughly 475,000 additional coins from circulation at an average cost basis of $105,000. The good news for investors here is that it doesn't really matter if Bitcoin passes an arbitrary price target before an arbitrary point in time. Since the biggest upside for holders is over the long term, not the near term, the smartest move here is simply to buy the coin and commit to holding it. Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $664,089!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $881,731!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 994% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Alex Carchidi has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Could Bitcoin Actually Hit $200,000 Before 2026? was originally published by The Motley Fool Sign in to access your portfolio
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Prediction: Shiba Inu Will Be Worth This Much in 5 Years
Shiba Inu delivered incredible returns to early investors, but it doesn't offer much utility. Although meme coins can be fun, they usually don't make good long-term investments. I expect Shiba Inu to lose another 25% to 50% during the next five years. 10 stocks we like better than Shiba Inu › You won't find many investments with more early success than Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB). During 2020 and 2021, it gained more than 17,000,000%. The lucky few who got in (and out) at the right time are set for life. Since then, Shiba Inu has mostly lost value, outside of a few smaller bull runs. The current price is $0.000011 as of June 20, down 87% from the all-time high in 2021 and 45% on the year. At that price, $100 is enough to buy well over 8 million of the tokens. Several popular cryptocurrencies have done well over the last year, including Bitcoin (up 59%), XRP (up 343%), and Cardano (up 57%). And investors are excited about the future, considering the Trump administration has been crypto-friendly so far. Could it be Shiba Inu's turn to go on a run? Anything's possible, but I would be cautious about investing in this meme coin. Meme coins normally aren't intended to solve real problems or create lasting value. People create them for fun or to hopefully strike it rich. That was the case with Shiba Inu, which started as a joke. It didn't have a white paper; it had a "woof paper" with quotes from Miyamoto Musashi, a 17th-century Japanese swordsman. The anonymous founder, Ryoshi, even sent about half of the total token supply to Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH) co-founder Vitalik Buterin in 2021 as a publicity stunt. From the beginning, Shiba Inu wasn't a serious project. It does have some use cases, in all fairness. The team behind it has built a Shiba Inu ecosystem with decentralized finance (DeFi) applications, including a decentralized exchange, ShibaSwap. But hardly anyone is using this blockchain ecosystem. The total value locked (TVL) on Shibarium, Shiba Inu's blockchain, is $2 million as of June 20. TVL is the amount of funds deposited onto a blockchain, so it's a good measure of a blockchain's popularity. Ethereum, the current king of DeFi, has $62.6 billion in TVL. Shiba Inu doesn't even crack the top 100 cryptocurrencies by this metric. Shiba Inu's lack of utility means there isn't much of a reason to buy it except in hopes that the price will go up. It's rare to see meme coins come anywhere close to their initial success. The novelty simply wears off. People want to buy the next Shiba Inu or Dogecoin, not the old version that has already had its moment. Shiba Inu appears to be at that stage. The number of daily active addresses has been declining and is in the 3,000 to 4,000 range this month, according to Santiment. In other words, a few thousand wallets per day are using Shiba Inu. At its peak in 2021, it had over 60,000 daily active addresses. The humorous nature of meme coins can also impede growth. Some retail investors may put in $10 to $100 for fun, but few will risk a sizable investment, and institutional money probably isn't going to start pouring into Shiba Inu. My prediction for Shiba Inu is that it will lose 25% to 50% of its value over the next five years. That would put its price between $0.000006 and $0.000009. Shiba Inu is highly volatile, and it could have periods where it does well. I don't think it will have a straight, steady decline. It will have some ups and some downs, but ultimately be a losing investment for those who buy and hold. This is still one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world, and it has passionate supporters. It probably won't fall off the map completely. But as the highs get further in the rearview mirror, fewer and fewer people will buy Shiba Inu. Before you buy stock in Shiba Inu, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Shiba Inu wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $664,089!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $881,731!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 994% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Lyle Daly has positions in Ethereum. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Ethereum. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Prediction: Shiba Inu Will Be Worth This Much in 5 Years was originally published by The Motley Fool
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Billionaire Investor Philippe Laffont Just Gave Bitcoin Investors Great News
Philippe Laffont worked at Julian Robertson's Tiger Management and has made many successful early tech investments. While not backed by physical assets, Bitcoin runs on the blockchain, which is considered a significant technological disruption. Laffont sees progress in Bitcoin for several reasons including the fact that it is now less volatile than it once was. 10 stocks we like better than Bitcoin › Philippe Laffont is part of an elite group of investors called Tiger Cubs. Tiger Cubs worked for Julian Robertson's hedge fund, Tiger Management, in the 1990s and then went on to found their own hedge funds. Laffont launched Coatue Management in the 1990s and heavily invests in the tech and artificial intelligence (AI) sectors. The multibillionaire was an early investor in Snap, Spotify, and TikTok parent company ByteDance. Needless to say, Laffont and his team are extremely skilled at evaluating companies in the tech industry. Recently, Laffont gave investors in Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), the world's largest cryptocurrency, reason to cheer. Here's why. Bitcoin is only about 16 years old, so investors are still learning a lot about the digital asset and the world's largest cryptocurrency. For many years, Bitcoin and the broader crypto market had been viewed as the Wild West and many investors ignored Bitcoin due to the token's big price swings and also because it doesn't generate earnings, free cash flow, or return capital to shareholders. However, Laffont said at a recent crypto conference that he thinks Bitcoin's volatility has begun to decrease. "It's intriguing to me that maybe ... the cost of getting into Bitcoin is shrinking," Laffont said at Coinbase Global's State of Crypto Summit, according to CNBC. "If the beta shrinks, that would be very interesting." Beta looks at the relative volatility of an asset compared to the broader market. So if the beta of the broader market is 1 and an asset has a 1.5 beta, one can expect that asset to outperform the market in good times and underperform the market in bad times. Investors typically are looking to generate the most alpha with the smallest amount of beta possible because that leads to strong returns with less risk and therefore more protection in a downside scenario. Laffont attributes Bitcoin's declining volatility partly to more institutional investors buying Bitcoin. Interestingly, Bitcoin only fell about 5% between April 2 and April 10, when the market got crushed after President Donald Trump announced sweeping tariffs on the country's largest trading partners. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite fell 6%. Laffont has said he deeply regrets not investing more in Bitcoin. He also acknowledged that he overlooked the simple concept that if a critical mass of people view Bitcoin as valuable, it is only likely to grow in value. With Bitcoin becoming less volatile, Laffont believes Bitcoin can become "more central" to the average portfolio. That could be a tailwind for Bitcoin because it only has a $2 trillion market cap, a fraction of the world's $500 trillion of net worth. One reason more investors may buy Bitcoin is because it's increasingly being viewed as a hedge against inflation due to its supply cap of 21 million tokens. Some investors also view it as a form of digital gold. The market has driven up the price of gold in recent years due to geopolitical uncertainty and concerns about the U.S. government's finances, which includes a more than $1.8 trillion fiscal deficit in 2024, and total debt that's now north of $36 trillion. Laffont isn't the only one who thinks Bitcoin can be bought by more general investors. BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, put out a report last year, saying it thinks investors can allocate as much as 2% of their portfolios to Bitcoin. I would agree that investors managing a general retirement portfolio can now allocate a small portion of capital to Bitcoin. With the broader benchmark S&P 500 now more heavily concentrated in a handful of dominant companies, it's harder for investors to diversify, making it more important they get some exposure to unique assets like gold, Bitcoin, and potentially oil and gas. If Bitcoin becomes even a small part of the traditional portfolio, then the price of the world's most valuable token is likely going to be less volatile and move higher over time. Before you buy stock in Bitcoin, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Bitcoin wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $664,089!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $881,731!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 994% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 172% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 9, 2025 Bram Berkowitz has positions in Bitcoin. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Bitcoin and Spotify Technology. The Motley Fool recommends Coinbase Global. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Billionaire Investor Philippe Laffont Just Gave Bitcoin Investors Great News was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
