How Bitdeer Is Redefining Bitcoin Mining Equipment

The Singapore-based mining company aims to revolutionize ASICs with an innovative design and a stronger focus on transparency.

Key Points:

• Bitdeer is expanding its ASIC production efforts.
• The company is launching the SEALMINER A4, a new chip design boasting 5 J/TH power efficiency.
• Bitdeer is committed to increasing transparency in the ASIC manufacturing industry.

ASIC chips are the foundation of Bitcoin (BTC) mining, designed solely to process Bitcoin’s SHA-256 algorithm at maximum speed to earn block rewards.

These specialized machines excel at the task. The Antminer S19, one of the most popular models, performs 82 trillion computations per second—820 times the estimated number of stars in the Milky Way.

The ASIC manufacturing industry, valued at $30 billion, is largely controlled by Bitmain. The Chinese firm supplies about 80% of Bitcoin’s total hashrate, according to TheMinerMag.

Singapore-based Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer (BTDR) is looking to disrupt the ASIC industry with the launch of a new chip architecture. The firm claims these chips will significantly enhance efficiency while also increasing transparency in the ASIC manufacturing process.

Jeff LaBerge, head of capital markets and strategic initiatives at Bitdeer, highlighted the lack of transparency in the ASIC manufacturing industry, noting that dominant players like Bitmain and MicroBT operate as private companies with little communication about their research and development efforts. This lack of visibility, he explained, makes it difficult for miners to plan for future hardware investments.

Bitdeer aims to change this by providing customers with clear updates on its manufacturing process, chip development roadmap, and production cycles. Greater transparency in ASIC production would help miners better anticipate Bitcoin’s difficulty adjustments and plan hardware shipments, according to Shanon Squires, chief mining officer at Compass Mining.

Wolfie Zhao, head of research at TheMinerMag, pointed out that while Canaan discloses its annual mining hardware sales, Bitdeer goes further by offering more frequent delivery updates. He suggested that these transparency efforts from smaller players could push larger manufacturers to follow suit.

On the efficiency front, ASIC chip designs have remained largely unchanged since 2014, with most improvements in power efficiency coming from advancements in foundry processes, particularly from TSMC. While some miners have made refinements to chip architecture, these modifications have only yielded incremental efficiency gains.

Despite the lack of major architectural changes in ASIC chips, efficiency improvements have been remarkable. The first-ever ASIC miner, Canaan’s Avalon (2013), had a power efficiency of 6,000 joules per terahash (J/TH), whereas Bitmain’s Antminer S21XP Hydro, the most efficient machine available today, operates at just 12 J/TH.

Bitdeer, a publicly traded company on Nasdaq, is aiming to push ASIC efficiency even further by pioneering a completely new chip architecture. "We believe it’s essential to enter the single-digit efficiency range," said Jeff LaBerge, referring to mining rigs with power consumption below 10 J/TH.

Traditionally, scaling efficiency has involved using progressively thinner chips, but this approach leads to higher defect rates and lower yields. It also puts ASIC manufacturers in direct competition with tech giants like Apple and Nvidia for materials.

To overcome these challenges, Bitdeer’s Chief Strategy Officer, Haris Basit, is leading a team of engineers—some of whom were involved in designing Bitmain’s first ASIC chips in 2014—to develop a new framework.

Bitdeer has already made strides with its latest product, the SEALMINER A3, which achieved a power efficiency of 9.7 J/TH in trials—potentially surpassing the efficiency of Bitmain’s S21XP Hydro. However, the upcoming SEALMINER A4, featuring Bitdeer’s new chip architecture, is projected to consume just 5 J/TH, making it the most efficient ASIC miner by a substantial margin.

"For years, it's been known that electric charge on a chip could be recycled, but no one has successfully implemented it in a way that maintains high performance," Basit said on the Coin Stories podcast in December. "We've figured out how to make it work in a high-performance application."

"Rather than using an electric charge once and then discharging it, we reuse it multiple times—four, five, or even six times," Basit explained. "This approach improves efficiency by 75-80%."

He added that this innovation, which will be incorporated into Bitdeer’s SEALMINER A4 chips, could have broader applications in highly active digital chips, such as GPUs and signal processing chips.

Advancing ASIC Manufacturing

Designing ASICs is a complex process. Bitdeer operates two research units—one in Singapore and another in Silicon Valley—focused on developing new chip designs. "Despite ASICs being relatively simple in function, as they only solve the SHA-256 algorithm, their design is highly intricate," LaBerge said. The company invests around $6-8 million in research each quarter.

Bitdeer has been rapidly rolling out new products. In 2024, it launched the SEALMINER A1 and A2, with the A3 expected to enter mass production in late 2025. The A4 is projected to reach the final design stage (tape-out) in Q3 2025, with a potential release in late 2025 or early 2026.

Once a chip design is finalized, Bitdeer partners with TSMC, the world's largest and most technologically advanced chip manufacturer, to produce the ASICs—making this collaboration a key part of Bitdeer’s strategy.

"You can't just walk into TSMC and request 100 exahash worth of chips for delivery in three months," LaBerge explained. "There's a structured process for securing chip allocation, and priority determines how much you get."

After receiving Bitdeer’s plans, TSMC creates a mask, which serves as a template for chip production—similar to a platen in a printing press. The mask is then sent to Bitdeer along with risk chips (a small trial batch) to test the design. If modifications are needed, Bitdeer provides feedback, and TSMC makes necessary adjustments before producing a new mask and risk chips. This process is costly—Bitdeer spent $14 million on the A2’s tape-out and $26 million on the A3’s.

Once the design is finalized, TSMC uses the mask to mass-produce wafers, which contain hundreds of chips each. While a mask can theoretically be used indefinitely, TSMC’s production capacity is limited, creating competition among firms for chip supply.

The A4’s design, however, is expected to streamline this allocation process. "[Basit] challenged the team to develop an architecture that didn’t require TSMC’s latest nodes but could instead use a slightly older process," LaBerge said. This approach allows Bitdeer to tap into less competitive manufacturing nodes, making chip production more accessible.

Once Bitdeer submits its design to TSMC, it takes about three months to receive the mask and risk chips. After approving mass production, the company waits another three to four months to receive the finished chips, which are then shipped directly to Bitdeer’s manufacturing facilities in Asia. From there, assembling and packaging the mining rigs takes an additional four to eight weeks.

Climbing to the Top

Despite the high production costs, Bitdeer offsets some of these expenses through customer deposits. Miners typically pay 25% to 50% of their order upfront, with the production cycle averaging six to seven months. This allows Bitdeer to quickly recover its investment and generate profit.

Manufacturing ASICs also strengthens Bitdeer’s own mining operations. Initially founded in 2021 as a hosting service for other bitcoin miners, the company is now shifting away from that model, expanding its own mining activities alongside its ASIC production.

Since ASIC acquisition is the most significant expense in bitcoin mining—and with machines becoming obsolete in just three to four years—miners are constantly seeking upgrades. By producing its own ASICs, Bitdeer gains a strategic edge in maintaining a competitive mining operation.

By manufacturing its own machines, Bitdeer significantly lowers costs and retains the flexibility to sell mining rigs to other firms as needed.

Looking ahead, the company aims to challenge industry giants Bitmain and MicroBT, disrupting what LaBerge described as a duopoly in the ASIC market. “We want to be the top player in the market, absolutely,” he stated. “We believe we have the team and the technology to do that.”