Bitdeer, a Bitcoin mining company, recently secured a $60 million loan to bolster its Bitcoin ASIC production amidst the surge in global mining competition marked by record-breaking network hashrates. The loan agreement, entered into in April, was with Matrixport, an affiliate company founded by Bitdeer’s chairman, Jihan Wu. This loan facility, offering up to $200 million, is backed by Bitdeer’s Sealminer hardware with a floating interest rate of 9% plus market benchmarks. As of April 21, Bitdeer had already drawn $43 million from this credit line. This new funding complements a $17 million unsecured loan Bitdeer received in January and previous capital raises totaling $572.5 million via convertible notes in 2024. Additionally, Bitdeer issued over six million shares, raising nearly $119 million in equity markets this year. In a strategic move, Bitdeer acquired a 101 MW gas-fired power project in Alberta for $21.7 million in cash, with plans for further expansion up to 1 gigawatt. The company also purchased 40 MW of liquid-cooled mining containers and is reported to be expanding its self-mining operations in the United States. This expansion comes at a time when Bitcoin’s network computing power hit a record 1 sextillion hashes per second in early April, reflecting intense competition among miners. The high hashrate, coupled with low transaction fees, has led to declining profitability for miners, forcing some to sell over 40% of their BTC production in March to compensate. Hive, Bitfarms, and Ionic Digital were among the firms reported to have sold more than 100% of their monthly output. This development underscores the challenges miners are facing amid the competitive landscape of Bitcoin mining.