Greenidge Mining Facility in Dresden, NY, Experiences Fire, Operations to Resume in Weeks

According to HashNews, Bitcoin mining company Greenidge Generation Holdings disclosed a fire at its Dresden, New York mining facility, co-operated with NYDIG. The incident, caused by a failure in electrical switchgear on Sunday, led to the facility's shutdown for safety, as confirmed in SEC filings. No mining equipment was damaged, and the company expects operations to resume within weeks, though no specific timeline was provided. The outage highlights challenges in commercial mining operations, which often operate on thin margins and face supply chain issues, high energy costs, equipment failures, reduced block rewards, and regulatory hurdles. The latest difficulties come as hash price, a key metric for miner profitability, fell to around $35 per PH/s in November due to BTC dropping to about $80,000. Typically, mining becomes unprofitable when the hash price drops below $40 per PH/s. As of now, the hash price has rebounded to about $39, according to HashrateIndex. Stablecoin issuer Tether confirmed it has shut down its mining operations in Uruguay due to rising energy costs and is in dispute with the local state energy provider over $4.8 million in unpaid bills. Meanwhile, major mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain is under a U.S. national security investigation over concerns its ASICs could be remotely accessed. Bitmain, a Chinese company with about 80% of the global mining equipment market, could face restrictions that would further complicate mining operations.