Karim Helmy and Brandon Bailey (Galaxy Digital) on Standardizing Miner Accounting (EP.264)
On The Brink with Castle Island
Release Date: 11/29/2021
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On The Brink with Castle Island
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Weekly Roundup 10/31/25 (DATs selling coins, prediction market problems, Bessent’s pesos) (EP.681)
On The Brink with Castle Island
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info_outlineGalaxy Digital Mining Associate Brandon Bailey and Research Associate Karim Helmy join the show to cover a new accounting methodology for Bitcoin miners. In this episode:
- Galaxy's new miner margins accounting methodology
- Brandon and Karim origin stories in mining
- How the randomness-based miner fingerprinting works
- How Karim thinks about miner depreciation schedules
- Why the Bitcoin e-waste paper understates the expected lifetime of Bitcoin ASICs
- S9s are still a quarter of the Bitcoin network
- Why Karim and Brandon created the new accounting framework
- The differences between marginal, direct, and total cost of production for BTC miners
- Does the sell side capably cover Bitcoin miners?
- What you would expect to see for marginal and total cost of production for established Bitcoin miners
- Why miners focus on marginal cost rather than total in their storytelling
- Major bottlenecks preventing the addition of new hardware
- Why hashrate may not converge to price in the near term
- Why the chip shortage advantages incumbents in Bitcoin mining
- Why Kazakhstan is scaling back their Bitcoin mining
- Why mining manufacturers do not get priority access to the best foundry capacity
- Why established miners will be able to mine Bitcoin at favorable rates for the near and medium term
- Why of the accounting identities Galaxy would prioritize when evaluating public mining companies
- How Galaxy arrived at a 3 year depreciation period for the average mining unit
- What advice Brandon and Karim would give you public market analysts evaluating mining companies
See the full write up and sample model here.
Sponsor notes:
- This episode is brought to you by Withum, a top 25 accounting firm with a cutting-edge Digital Currency and Blockchain Technology practice. To learn more, visit withum.com/crypto
- OurCrowd analyzes companies across the global private market, selecting those with the greatest growth potential, then brings them to you. Get started at OurCrowd.com/otb