According to an article published by Deutsche Finanz, November 29, 2018, Munich-based private equity firm Xolaris is set to launch a $50 million bitcoin farming fund to expand its business into the Asian market. This comes at a time when the market crash has forced many small-scale miners to throw in the towel due to the increasing cost of mining cryptocurrencies.
Large Companies Unfazed by the Market Bloodbath
The German equity firm opened its office in Hong Kong in July 2018, and will now work towards setting up a big-scale mining farm in Asia. Notably, November saw crypto industry’s market cap shrink by more than $70 billion.
The firm is also primed to launch a European fund this week ranging from €30 billion to €50 billion; targeting an annual return of close to 21 percent. The proceeds will, in turn, be used to finance an existing bitcoin mining farm in Sweden.
Stefan Klaile, managing partner of Xolaris Group, stated the Asian fund would be open for subscription in December, after the launch of the aforementioned European fund. He added:
“For our fund, we see the current price decline in bitcoin rather positively. Bitcoin mining return is affected by a combination of drivers including bitcoin price levels, hashrate, mining difficulty and the price of mining equipment such as servers. We see recent developments as giving [our mining farm operator] the opportunity to increase market share.”
Thanks to the November 2018 bloodbath, bitcoin hashrate has fallen a great deal in the past one month. On November 25, the hashrate was 36 PH (petahash per second), compared to 60 PH at the end of October. Klaile noted the plunge in mining hashrate is a testimony to the existing fear of uncertainty among bitcoin miners.
Existing nervousness can further be explained by the fact that many small-scale miners in China are reportedly selling their equipment at dirt low prices due to their inability to breakeven costs.
Looking at the positive, Klaile stated the slump in the Bitcoin Network processing power had opened opportunities for large-scale mining operators. Small players getting weeded out have reduced the mining competition, and cleared the path for mining behemoths like Bitmain to utilize the opportunity.
Is Small-Scale Mining Passé?
In recent times, some large companies have shown interest in crypto mining. BTCManager reported on August 11, 2018, how crypto mining firm Soluna announced its plans to build a 900MW wind farm in the Sahara Desert. Many other companies the world over have followed suit.
It will be interesting to see how the entry of an increasing number of big players will impact the small-scale miners.
