BIT Mining Acquires 51 MW Ethiopia Bitcoin Mine for $14 Million

Chinese sports lottery-turned-crypto mining company BIT Mining is expanding into Ethiopia, acquiring a 51-megawatt (MW) Bitcoin mine and 17,869 mining rigs for $14.3 million.

In an announcement on Tuesday, BIT Mining stated that the deal includes a $2.3 million cash payment and $12 million worth of newly issued ordinary shares.

The transaction will be completed in two phases. The first phase, comprising 35 MW of operational capacity and the transfer of all mining rigs, is expected to close in the coming days. The remaining power capacity will be transferred after the site’s construction is completed.

If the initial 35 MW is fully utilized by the 17,869 mining rigs, the estimated power consumption per miner is approximately 2,000 watts—comparable to legacy equipment such as Bitmain’s Antminer S17 or MicroBT’s M20 series.

BIT Mining joins other Chinese-origin firms expanding into Ethiopia to leverage the region’s low electricity costs. Bitmain-backed BitFuFu previously announced the acquisition of an 80 MW Bitcoin mine in the country, and Bitmain has been actively promoting mining infrastructure development in the region.

The expansion comes as BIT Mining faces declining proprietary mining revenue and capacity. In the first half of this year, the company reported a revenue of $21 million.

At the end of 2023, BIT Mining sold the pool business of BTC.com for $5 million but retained the domain name. The divested pool business has since been rebranded as Cloverpool by the new owner.

Last month, BIT Mining appointed H.C. Wainwright as its sales agent for an at-the-market equity offering of up to $9.6 million, aimed at raising additional capital.