Fox's Susan Li Reveals the Inner Workings of Riot Blockchain

Fox Business Network’s Susan Li delivered a live report out of Riot Blockchain’s bitcoin mining facility in Texas on Wednesday — right as the company’s staffers shut the facility down in an effort to ease the strain on the state’s power grid.

“Right here, taking place right now … we have Riot Blockchain shutting down the power,” Li noted, as a staffer clad in protective lab gear powered down the mining rigs around her.

Power demand in the state is expected to reach an all-time record this week due to a heatwave that has sent temperatures soaring above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in some areas. Riot’s facility there is the largest bitcoin mining operation in North America. The company operates more than 50,000 miners between that state and a facility hosted by Coinmint in Massena, New York.

However, Texas has taken a much more congenial approach toward bitcoin mining companies than its counterpart in the Northeast. New York’s legislature passed a bill this month that would put a two-year moratorium on new bitcoin mining operations, though Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul has not said whether she will sign it.

Riot CEO Jason Les made a cameo in Li’s segment in a pre-recorded interview to praise Texas for its welcoming atmosphere.

“Texas is not only the most business-friendly state, I think, probably out there, but it is probably the most friendly state for bitcoin companies and bitcoin mining companies,” Les said. “That gives us a very comfortable — much more comfortable feeling about the capital we’re deploying here, the jobs we’re creating here.”

Riot became the proprietor of the Rockdale, Texas facility in 2021, after it purchased a competitor, Whinstone U.S., in a cash-and-stock deal value at $651 million. It reported mining 466 bitcoins in May, and said it held an estimated total of slightly more than 6,500.

The company announced in April that it would also be expanding to another 265-acre location in Navarro County, Texas, where it will host a fleet of immersion-cooled miners. That operation is expected to become fully operational in July 2023, and is likely to solidify Texas’ position as one of the top two states for mining. Georgia accounted for 30.8 percent of bitcoin mining hash power in the United States as of December, according to a Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance study, while Texas came in second, at 11.2 percent.

Riot has steadfastly held most of its proceeds from mining. It disclosed that it sold just 200 in March, at an average price of $47,090 each, for a sum of $9.4 million.

Li is in Texas this week for CoinDesk’s annual Consensus conference in Austin. Sens. Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) and one of New York’s senators, Kirsten Gillibrand (D), are scheduled to appear on a panel at the conference on Friday afternoon to speak about their new proposal to regulate cryptocurrencies.

You can watch Li’s segment above.