Bitcoin-focused investment platform Swan Bitcoin brought its mining operation out of stealth on Thursday, announcing it had already mined over 750 BTC to date. The news comes as Swan says it is preparing to go public within the next year.
The announcement also comes ahead of the Bitcoin halving event, which will reduce mining rewards by half. The event, expected to happen in April, has most mining companies rushing to add capacity and become more efficient, or otherwise increase profits elsewhere, to soften the blow.
Swan Mining, a division of Swan Institutional, quietly began operations in last summer. The miner already has 4.5 exahash per second (EH/s) of compute power operational on the Bitcoin network. The company has purchased additional equipment that will allow it to exceed 8 EH/s by March, a 44% increase in mining power.
The mining operation has been funded by $100 million from institutional investors. Swan Mining’s funding model uses no debt and it is a legally separate entity from the rest of Swan’s business.
“We bring financial expertise and operational excellence, while our investors provide equity capital to our mining unit in exchange for priority on initial payouts and continued shared upside,” said Rapha Zagury, chief investment officer at Swan and head of Swan Mining, in the press release.
Swan has grown rapidly over the past year despite the crypto winter, doubling its team size and growing to more than $125 million in annualized revenue, according to the company. Swan plans to raise a Series C funding round in the coming months, which would partly go toward the expansion of the mining operations. The firm is also working on listing as a public company within the next 12 months, according to the release.
