Riot Blockchain, a leading cryptocurrency mining company, announced today that it has acquired 33,280 Bitmain S19 Pro Antminers for its Rockdale, Texas facility. The purchase is part of Riot’s strategic expansion plan to increase its bitcoin mining capacity and operational efficiency.
Riot Blockchain is a Nasdaq-listed company that focuses on bitcoin mining and supporting the bitcoin network. The company also holds a diversified portfolio of blockchain assets, including a stake in Blockstream Mining, a minority stake in Coinsquare, and a majority stake in Whinstone US.
According to a press release, the new miners are expected to be deployed between October 2023 and June 2023, adding approximately 3.8 exahash per second (EH/s) to Riot’s current hash rate of 2.4 EH/s. By the end of 2023, Riot anticipates achieving a total hash rate capacity of 7.7 EH/s, consuming approximately 257 megawatts of energy.
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The Rockdale facility, which is currently under construction, will be one of the largest and most advanced bitcoin mining operations in North America. Riot has partnered with Enigma Digital Assets AG and Lancium LLC to provide hosting and power management services for the facility. The facility will also leverage renewable energy sources and innovative cooling technologies to minimize its environmental impact.
Riot’s CEO, Jason Les, commented on the acquisition: “We are excited to continue our growth and execute on our long-term vision of becoming one of the most relevant and significant companies supporting the Bitcoin network and greater Bitcoin ecosystem. We are happy to have secured this latest purchase, especially given that the available supply of mining hardware continues to become increasingly scarce.”
Chibi Finance Allegedly Executed a Rugpull on Arbitrum
Chibi Finance, a decentralized exchange (DEX) on the Arbitrum Chain, has been accused of executing a rugpull, a type of scam where the developers drain the liquidity pool and run away with the funds. According to reports, the DEX’s website, Twitter account, and Telegram group have all been deleted, leaving investors with no way to contact the team or access their tokens. The total amount of funds lost is estimated to be around $3 million.
Rugpulls are one of the most common and devastating risks in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space, especially on BSC, which has lower security standards and less oversight than Ethereum. Many projects on BSC and Arbitrum are clones or forks of existing protocols, with little innovation or originality. Some of these projects are launched by anonymous or inexperienced developers, who may have malicious intentions or lack the skills to maintain the code and ensure its security. Investors are lured by high returns and attractive features but end up losing their money when the project collapses or gets hacked.
Chibi Finance was one of these projects, promising to offer a gamified DEX with NFTs and a governance token called CHIBI. The project claimed to have a unique mechanism to reward holders and burn tokens, creating a deflationary and sustainable economy. However, these claims turned out to be false, as the developers apparently exploited a vulnerability in the contract and withdrew all the liquidity from the pool. The price of CHIBI plummeted from $0.07 to $0.0002 in a matter of minutes, wiping out the value of investors’ holdings.
The incident has sparked outrage and frustration among the DeFi community, who have condemned Chibi Finance as a scam and warned others to avoid similar projects. Some investors have also reported the project to BSCScan, the block explorer for BSC, and requested to blacklist the CHIBI token. However, it is unlikely that the victims will be able to recover their funds or hold the developers accountable, as there is no legal recourse or regulation in the DeFi space.
The Chibi Finance rugpull serves as a harsh reminder of the dangers and challenges of DeFi, especially on BSC and Arbitrum. Investors should always do their own research and due diligence before putting their money into any project and be aware of the risks involved. They should also diversify their portfolio and only invest what they can afford to lose. DeFi is still a nascent and experimental field, with great potential but also great pitfalls.