Cipher Upgrades Bitcoin Miner Option from T21 to S21 XP

Texas-headquartered Cipher Mining has revised a bitcoin miner purchase option with Bitmain, opting for more efficient rigs at a higher price while extending the option’s deadline by six months.

Previously, Cipher signed a preorder with Bitmain in December for 7.1 EH/s of Antminer T21s at $14/TH/s, with an option to purchase an additional 8.7 EH/s of T21s by the end of 2024 at the same price.

In a recent filing on Friday, Cipher announced that the option had been amended. The company can now choose to purchase another 8.7 EH/s of the more efficient Antminer S21XPs for about $21.4/TH/s. Bitmain has also extended the deadline for Cipher to exercise the revised option to June 30, 2025.

If Cipher exercised the option in whole, the total purchase price would increase to $186 million, up from the previous price of $122 million.

Bitmain launched the Antminer S21XP model in June, shortly after bitcoin’s fourth halving, which reduced mining hashprice to below $50/PH/s. According to Bitmain’s specifications, the air-cooled S21XP has an efficiency of 13.5 J/TH. At an energy rate of $0.05/kWh, an S21XP would incur a daily hashcost of $16.2/PH/s, compared to T21’s hashcost of $22.8.PH/s.

With the revised option, Cipher has effectively replaced the entire T21 purchase order. Previously, the company had replaced the initial purchase of 7.1 EH/s in T21s with S21 Pros at a higher price to accelerate the shipment schedule. Cipher stated that the S21 Pros were expected to arrive in two batches in September and October, instead of the original schedule of the first half of 2025.

Cipher is among a group of pure-play bitcoin mining companies that have increased their realized hashrate following the halving, despite the decline in bitcoin’s hashprice.