Dustin Holden, CFO of Kaboomracks, used his keynote at Mining Disrupt Miami 2021, held July 20–21, 2021, to walk miners through one question: what happens to a fleet of machines between the day they are bought and the day they are sold off. Kaboomracks is an equipment marketplace for buying and selling mining hardware, and Holden's talk followed that same arc, from an honest look at the machines already on the racks, through procurement and replacement, to disposal, brokerage and what to do with the proceeds.
He framed the whole talk around an operator that is already up and running, whether in a building, a container, a basement or a garage, with the miners installed and tuned. That, he said, is the moment to be candid about where the equipment sits in its life cycle, because the answer shapes every decision that follows.
The Honest Audit: Knowing Where You Stand in the Hashrate Cycle
Holden opened with a checklist rather than a thesis. Are you running T1s, S9s or Avalon 821s that are three, four or five years old? What revenue is the fleet producing, what are the operating costs, what do repairs cost, and how likely is it that the machines become obsolete? He added one more question that many operators skip: has the equipment already paid for itself?
what is your equipment status
Dustin Holden · 3:18
He also pointed out that a big reduction in difficulty had lifted revenue for existing fleets at the time, which is exactly why the revenue line deserved a fresh look rather than an assumption carried over from the previous year.
big reduction in difficulty has increased that revenue significantly
Dustin Holden · 3:44
Only after that audit, he said, does the upgrade question make sense. If the decision is to move to S19s or Whatsminer M31s, he wanted operators to name the reason. Is it a financial decision, an opportunistic buy that adds hashrate and therefore revenue, or a strategic one, where the old equipment needs to be liquidated to get the most salvage value out of it while it still has some?
The Procurement Dilemma: New Hardware vs. Strategic Swap
Holden then ran through the choices that follow. The market carries several manufacturers, among them Canaan, MicroBT and Bitmain, each with different power draw, hashrate and efficiency, so the first job is to identify which product fits the site. Next comes new versus used; his example was an operator with a pile of S17s to dump that wants S19s in their place.
Then comes sourcing: direct from the manufacturer, through a private seller, or through a broker such as Kaboomracks. After that, cash flow, meaning how the purchase actually gets paid for. Delivery is its own problem; Holden said his firm handles a lot of international shipments, with manufacturers in China and sellers in Europe and elsewhere. Finally there are modifications, such as firmware upgrades or hardware upgrades, and the broader job of making sure the right product lands at the right site.
The last procurement decision is the replacement plan itself. Holden set out two paths: a wholesale swap, shutting down the whole mine, uninstalling everything and flipping it all to new units, or an incremental one, buying ten, fifteen or a hundred machines at a time and swapping them out so that old-generation and new-generation hardware run side by side for a while.
Condition Drives Salvage Value
Once the S19js and S19 Pros are racked, the old equipment is still sitting there, and Holden's question was how to get the most back out of it for that specific operation. The options are to sell the machines or scrap them, and the deciding factor is condition.
let's be honest here most miners when they're a couple years old are in pretty rough shape
Dustin Holden · 6:42
His advice was to document performance. If an operator can show that the miners have been running efficiently, with all three boards working, no overheating and decent efficiency even on older units, the salvage value improves accordingly. The current hashrate of the machines, in other words, is evidence a buyer will pay for.
The final piece of the disposal decision is the partner. There are plenty of groups and individuals to work with, he said, and the job is to find the one that gets the highest value for the equipment. His answer, naturally, was his own firm, which he said can help an operator sell old gear and find the new equipment it needs.
The Phoenix Advantage: Testing, Repair, and Consolidation
What makes a good broker for old equipment? Holden's list was short: one that can maximize salvage value by testing the equipment, repairing it and consolidating it, and that has the space to do all three.
we can receive equipment we can test it we can clean it we can consolidate it
Dustin Holden · 7:42
He described the Kaboomracks facility in Phoenix as the place where that happens. Equipment comes in, gets tested, cleaned and consolidated, and where needed is matched with replacement parts, which he said is where the firm delivers the best value to its clients.
The other half of the pitch was the sales network. Holden said Kaboomracks has connections throughout the industry that help move equipment on time and for the best dollar, which matters when the goal is to turn retired hardware into cash rather than let it sit on a shelf.
Closing the Loop: Turning Liquidation Proceeds into Cash Flow
The talk ended where the lifecycle ends: with cash from the sold machines. What to do with it, Holden said, depends on how the operation was funded. One option is to rebuy bitcoin; his example was selling a hundred thousand dollars of old miners and putting the proceeds straight back into BTC.
Another is to pay down debt. If the operator took out a loan collateralized against its bitcoin, he suggested using the sale proceeds to pay that note off. A third is to fund operations with the dollars.
let's keep as much btc as we're mining and let's pay out of the proceeds from our old equipment
Dustin Holden · 8:53
The logic there is to hold on to the coins being mined while the dollars from the old fleet cover power bills, labor and rent. Holden closed by inviting attendees to the Kaboomracks booth just outside the main stage, with coffee and free t-shirts on offer for anyone with equipment to buy or sell. When this session was recorded, Bitcoin traded at $32,125; on October 12, 2026 it was $83,316.