Cryptocurrency exchange network Apifiny is breaking into bitcoin mining.

The San Francisco firm has purchased 2,550 ASICs from Bitdeer to mine bitcoin in a bid to increase its options for sourcing trading liquidity, the team told CoinDesk.

“Bitcoin mining machines are a strategic investment and growth acceleration tool for us,” CEO Haohan Xu said. “There is high synergy between ongoing bitcoin inflow from our mining operations and our market making and trading platform that provide cost advantages and additional liquidity sources. It will allow us to offer our customers more efficient and diversified trading alternatives.”  

Apifiny is an exchange network that provides a unified order book for its exchange partners to source liquidity, servicing exchanges including Huobi Global, Crypto.com, OKEx and other crypto exchanges. According to the team, the exchange network’s combined order book has processed some $1.4 billion in average monthly volume since the beginning of 2021.

As evidenced by Apifiny’s move into the industry, bitcoin’s mining market has been red hot since the cryptocurrency began its run-up last autumn. Miners continue to purchase machines at a rapid clip, and a shortage of new hardware has led to a boom in the secondary market.