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In another indication of Beijing Bitmain's and Allrise Captial's financial distress, the employment of Merkle Standard general manager Todd Behrend's, who also acts the chief executive officer of the Ponderay Industries LLC, Ponderay Real Estate LLC, and Ponderay Data LL (and likely others), employment has reportedly been terminated.
Behrend's departure coincides with the curtailment of bitcoin mining operations at the Usk facility due to rising power costs. The cost of electricity on the Mid-Columbia Hub market now exceeds the value of the bitcoin that the Usk facility can produce. The curtailment in operations will likely last until at least October based on the current electricity futures prices. Behrend, who previously worked at the paper mill, was one of only six full-time employees at the Usk facility-- a number of jobs that is only a fraction of the number that Bitmain and Allrise promised the residents of the county despite skeptics pointing out that crypto companies misleading rural counties about the number of jobs they would create has been a standard practice across the United States and Canada. Behrend's departure indicates that Bitmain/Allrise's own employees are losing confidence in the future of bitcoin in Pend Oreille County, where power prices have been many times higher than Bitmain and Allrise expected. The facility currently has about 20,500 bitcoin mining computers installed that were worth over $200 million at the time they were delivered. Due to high power prices the collapse of the covid bitcoin bubble, the facility has struggled to generate the revenue needed to pay back even in one tenth of the value invested in the project.
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