Hut 8 Corp. (Nasdaq | TSX: HUT), a leading Bitcoin mining company, has expanded its partnership with BITMAIN Technologies Ltd., the world’s largest manufacturer of Bitcoin mining servers, to introduce the U3S21EXPH, a next-generation ASIC miner. This model will be the first mass-market miner to include direct liquid-to-chip (DLC) cooling within the U form factor.
Hut 8 plans to deploy the new miner in the second half of 2025, with the first hosting agreement handling approximately 15 exahash per second (EH/s). This hosting deployment, powered by a custom-built data center infrastructure built in-house by Hut 8, is an important part of the company’s strategy to expand its computing power across the Bitcoin and AI mining sectors.
“Our partnership with BITMAIN has allowed us to improve our thinking on ASIC compute and create a more scalable data center design model as we expand our footprint,” said Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8. “The U3S21EXPH will be the first miner since BITMAIN is widely sold with DLC cooling inside the U form factor, making it suitable as standard data center hardware. This innovation bridges the critical engineering gap between Bitcoin mining and AI data center infrastructure in both form factor and cooling technology. , and we believe that this merger will enable us to unlock significant synergies and flexibility going forward.”
The U3S21EXPH can achieve an efficiency of 13 joules per terahash, producing up to 860 terahash. It uses DLC cooling, a technology reserved for high-performance computing (HPC) data centers, to make Bitcoin mining more energy efficient and scalable.
“Asher and Mike have been valuable partners of BITMAIN since the early days of US Bitcoin Corp, where they demonstrated a unique focus on procurement and cost-effective operations,” said Irene Gao, Vice President of Mining at BITMAIN. “Hut 8’s technology, operational capabilities, and track record of innovation make this partnership a natural evolution of our relationship as we embark on a journey to develop next-generation ASIC technology.”
The commercial agreement between Hut 8 and BITMAIN includes a fixed hosting fee and a purchase option for Hut 8 to purchase hosted equipment in up to three tiers. This structure allows Hut 8 to assess market conditions before investing more money, reducing financial risk. If Hut 8 uses this purchase option, its mining capacity can increase from 5.6 EH/s to 20.6 EH/s.