Bitmain released the Antminer T19, a lower-priced Bitcoin mining machine, on Monday in a bid to regain lost market share.
The Beijing-based company said the Antminer T19 delivers a hashrate of 84 TH/s and power efficiency of 37.5 J/TH. The new model is based on the same chip generation as the more efficient Antminer S19 but is cheaper. The S19, with 95 TH/s, costs $1,785, about 2% more than the T19’s $1,750.
Specifications and Pricing
“The Antminer T19 is housed with the same generation of custom-built chips found in the Antminer S19 and S19 Pro, ensuring capable and efficient operations for mining cryptocurrencies,” Bitmain said in a blog post. According to mining pool F2pool, the T19 generates up to $3.17 in daily profit, compared to $3.96 for the S19, based on an average electricity cost of $0.05/kWh.
The T19 went on sale June 1, with a limit of two miners per customer “to prevent hoarding and to ensure more individual buyers can purchase miners.” Shipments are scheduled between June 21 and 30.
Comparison with Previous Models and Reliability
The new miner is more efficient than the T17, which along with the Antminer S17 had a failure rate of 20%–30%, far above the typical 5%. The T19 comes with “upgraded firmware” for faster startup speeds.
Market Competition and Halving Context
Bitmain’s launch comes as it faces growing competition from Microbt, maker of the Whatsminer series. The May 11 Bitcoin halving, which cut block rewards to 6.25 BTC and slashed miner revenue in half, has pushed miners to seek more efficient hardware. According to Coinshares, Bitmain may have lost about 10% market share in 2019, a trend that likely continued into 2020. Earlier on Monday, Canadian firm Bitfarms announced the purchase of 1,847 Whatsminer M20S machines, adding approximately 133 PH/s to its capacity.
By launching a more affordable model, Bitmain aims to retain customers who might otherwise switch to rivals. Whether the T19 can reverse the company’s market share decline remains to be seen.