Software-specific built-in circuit (ASIC) chips type the spine of the bitcoin (BTC) mining business. ASIC machines are made for a single objective: To resolve Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm as quick as potential so as to accumulate block rewards.
They’re extraordinarily good at it. Probably the most extensively used ASIC machines, the Antminer S19, is able to making 82 trillion computations per second — 820 instances the variety of stars within the Milky Approach. The $30 billion ASIC manufacturing market is dominated by Bitmain. The Chinese language firm’s machines energy roughly 80% of Bitcoin’s hashrate, in line with TheMinerMag.
However Singapore-based bitcoin mining agency Bitdeer (BTDR) intends to shake issues up with the discharge of a brand new ASIC chip structure. These new chips might convey an enormous bounce in effectivity, the corporate claims, whereas bettering transparency within the ASIC manufacturing course of.
“The 2 dominant gamers [Bitmain and MicroBT] are each personal firms, and really opaque,” Jeff LaBerge, head of capital markets and strategic initiatives at Bitdeer, advised CoinDesk in an interview. “They don’t actually interact with the media or give any kind of steerage about what they’re doing from an R&D standpoint, and that makes it very tough for end-buyers to plan.”
“We wish our clients to know the place we’re at in our manufacturing course of, what our roadmap is by way of new chip designs, the place we’re at in our manufacturing cycles,” LaBerge stated.
Shanon Squires, chief mining officer at bitcoin internet hosting agency Compass Mining, advised CoinDesk that elevated visibility into ASIC manufacturing would assist miners plan new {hardware} shipments and make it simpler to foretell Bitcoin’s issue progress. “Bitdeer’s dedication to transparency is nice for the mining business,” he stated.
“Whereas Canaan discloses its annual gross sales quantity for numerous mining fashions, Bitdeer takes it a step additional by offering extra frequent supply quantity updates,” Wolfie Zhao, head of analysis at TheMinerMag, advised CoinDesk. “Though each are smaller gamers within the {hardware} market, their efforts present good religion in selling transparency. Hopefully, it will encourage the bigger market incumbents to take be aware.”
Searching for effectivity
ASIC chips have used largely the identical blueprint since 2014. During the last decade, the most important will increase in ASIC energy effectivity have come on the foundry degree, as main world chipmaker TSMC has refined its manufacturing course of. Whereas miners have additionally made alterations to chip design, such modifications have solely introduced incremental features.
Even so, progress has been great. The very first ever ASIC, Canaan’s Avalon (2013) had an influence effectivity of 6,000 joules per terahash (J/TH). Bitmain’s Antminer S21XP Hydro, the present best machine available on the market, boasts 12 J/TH effectivity.
Bitdeer, which is listed on Nasdaq, needs to create a very new structure for its ASICs. “We really feel prefer it’s going to be needed to interrupt into what we name the single-digit effectivity vary,” LaBerge stated, referring to mining rigs with lower than 10 J/TH in effectivity.
Scaling up with the normal blueprint means utilizing progressively thinner chips. However thinner means chips usually tend to be faulty and yields per batch are inclined to fall. “You’re additionally competing with Apple and Nvidia and a number of the greatest firms on the earth for a similar supplies,” LaBerge stated.
Bitdeer’s Chief Technique Officer, Haris Basit, is main a crew of engineers to create a brand new framework. Some members of that crew labored on designs present in Bitmain’s first ASIC chips again in 2014 — the chips whose structure grew to become the usual throughout the business. (Bitmain didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
Bitdeer’s analysis has already had successes. The corporate’s most up-to-date product, the SEALMINER A3, achieved an influence effectivity of 9.7 J/TH throughout efficiency trials, the agency reported on Monday. Which means the A3 — which nonetheless makes use of the normal ASIC blueprint — might find yourself taking the effectivity crown from the S21XP Hydro.
But the miner’s SEALMINER A4, which is able to make use of the agency’s new chip structure, is anticipated to eat 5 J/TH. It’ll doubtless be essentially the most environment friendly ASIC machine available on the market by a big margin.
“Individuals have recognized for a very long time that you would recycle [the electric] cost on a chip, however nobody’s actually been in a position to determine how to do this in a means that enables for prime efficiency… We have cracked the code on how to do that in a really excessive efficiency utility,” Basit advised the Coin Tales podcast in December.
“As an alternative of simply utilizing [charge] as soon as and discharging it, we use it a number of instances, 4, 5, six instances. So we get [a] 75-80% enchancment in effectivity by doing that,” Basit added.
“Our SEALMINER A4 chips will use this know-how, however it must also be relevant extra typically in digital chips, particularly digital chips which can be extremely lively, like GPUs and sign processing chips.”
Manufacturing chips
Making ASICs isn’t straightforward. Bitdeer’s analysis crew is split into two items (one in Singapore, one other in Silicon Valley) that each work on new chip designs. “For such a easy machine — all it does is remedy the SHA-256 algorithm — it’s extraordinarily difficult to design. We’ve received a number of the greatest engineers on the earth engaged on this,” LaBerge stated. The corporate spends roughly $6-8 million on analysis per quarter.
Up to now, the agency has been delivering new merchandise at a quick tempo. Bitdeer pushed out each the SEALMINER A1 and A2 in 2024 and is anticipating the A3 to enter mass manufacturing within the latter half of 2025. It says the A4 ought to attain tape-out (the final stage of its designing course of) within the third quarter of the yr, with a launch doubtless in late-2025 or early 2026.
When a brand new chip design is finalized, Bitdeer sends the plans over to TSMC. Not solely is the Taiwanese agency the biggest chip producer on the earth, it’s additionally essentially the most superior on a technological degree, which makes Bitdeer’s partnership with it essential.
“You’ll be able to’t simply go to TSMC and say, ‘Hey, I need 100 exahash value of chips within the subsequent three months.’ There is a course of for going by that,” LaBerge stated. “You go in and ask them for chip allocation, they usually’ll give that primarily based on precedence.”
As soon as it has the plans in hand, TSMC produces a masks, which basically capabilities as a template for chips — just like the platen in a printing press. The masks is shipped to Bitdeer alongside threat chips (a small batch of chips that the corporate can use for trials) to ensure the design works correctly. If the agency wants any alterations to be made to the design, that’s when it occurs. In that case, TSMC makes corrections primarily based on Bitdeer’s suggestions and sends over a brand new masks with new threat chips. All of this occurs at vital value. Bitdeer spent $14 million on the A2’s tape-out and $26 million on the A3’s.
When Bitdeer is happy with a design, TSMC makes use of the masks to mass-produce wafers. LaBerge in contrast wafers to sheets, every containing a whole bunch of chips. Technically, a masks can be utilized to create an nearly limitless variety of wafers, however TSMC has finite sources and might solely produce a sure variety of chips, so companies find yourself competing for them.
One of many benefits of the A4’s design, in line with LaBerge, is that it’s alleged to make the agency’s chip allocation course of simpler. “[Basit] challenged the crew to provide you with a brand new structure that didn’t must endure TSMC’s newest processes, however might step again a few generations, which might enable us to make use of a node that’s a lot much less in demand,” he stated. A semiconductor node is mainly a particular model of the agency’s chip manufacturing know-how; TSMC is continually constructing new nodes in an effort to refine its processes.
It takes roughly three months for Bitdeer to obtain its masks and threat chips after first submitting its design to TSMC. Then, it’s one other three or 4 months for the corporate to obtain its chips as soon as it has given the foundry the inexperienced mild for mass manufacturing. The chips are despatched straight to Bitdeer’s manufacturing services in Asia. From there, it may well take 4 to eight weeks for the mining rigs to be absolutely constructed and packaged.
Aiming for the highest
Regardless of all the prices incurred throughout manufacturing, a number of the capital required for manufacturing ASICs comes from Bitdeer’s clients.
Miners fascinated with buying Bitdeer’s ASICs usually put down a deposit of 25% to 50% of the overall value of the order. The manufacturing cycle tends to common at six to seven months, so it doesn’t take lengthy for the corporate to recuperate its funds and make a revenue.
Constructing ASICs additionally creates benefits for Bitdeer’s personal mining operations. Up till just lately the agency, which was based in 2021, centered on the internet hosting enterprise, that means that it supplied services for different bitcoin miners to position their rigs. Bitdeer is slowly transitioning out of that mannequin and increasing its personal mining operations alongside its ASIC manufacturing arm.
The acquisition of ASICs is usually the costliest a part of increase a bitcoin mining operation. These machines normally solely final round three or 4 years earlier than newer fashions make them out of date, so bitcoin mining companies are continually seeking to purchase extra.
Not solely is Bitdeer in a position to significantly scale back these prices by producing its personal machines, however it additionally has the choice of promoting its mining rigs to different companies relying on its wants.
Down the road, Bitdeer goals to present Bitmain and MicroBT a run for his or her cash, and disrupt what LaBerge referred to as the duopoly of the ASIC market. “We wish to be the highest participant out there, completely,” LaBerge stated. “We imagine we now have the crew and the know-how to do this.”
UPDATE (March 14, 2025, 15:30 UTC): Added the price of the SEALMINER A3 tape-out.