Tampa company invests over $1M in Bitcoin mining machines

LM Funding America, a publicly traded cryptocurrency mining and technology-based finance company, says it will purchase 300 Bitmain S21 computing machines for approximately $1.1 million.

LM Funding America commenced Bitcoin mining operations in September 2022.

The Tampa company says the S21 is a high-efficiency machine that generates many millions of computations per second. The delivery of the machines is expected during the second quarter of 2024, the company says in a Tuesday news release, and once operational will bring the company's mining capacity to 674 petahash, or 1 quadrillion hashes per second.

A hash is used in Bitcoin mining, and the faster, the better.

"Hash rate is measured by the number of hashes (or guesses) per second on a blockchain network," according to Investopedia. "The larger the blockchain network, the higher the hash rate."

These computational guesses are how Bitcoin is mined. The virtual currency is "designed to act as money and a form of payment outside the control of any one person, group, or entity, thus removing the need for third-party involvement in financial transactions," according to Investopedia. "It is rewarded to blockchain miners for verifying transactions and can be purchased on several exchanges."

Bitcoins have soared in value in recent years, trading at more than $43,100 per digital coin on Tuesday, according to Nasdaq's website.

Bruce Rodgers, CEO of LM Funding America, says the proceeds of the company's Bitcoin mining operations will be invested into the most efficient Bitcoin mining equipment available.

The company's S21 machines will be "leading producers" from 2024 to 2028, Rodgers says.

LM Funding America is traded on Nasdaq under the ticker "LMFA." 

Founded in 2008 primarily as a technology-based specialty finance company that provided funding to nonprofit community associations, LM Funding America diversified to Bitcoin mining in autumn 2022.