Riot Platforms trims August mining, as Bitfarms mines 383 BTC

In early September, mining companies reported results for the past month. ForkLog has compiled the key figures in one piece.

Marathon Digital Holdings

In August Marathon Digital Holdings generated 1,072 BTC — down 9% from the July figure , but more than five times the results in December 2022.

“The decline in production from July was largely due to intensified activity to curb mining in Texas amid record-high temperatures,” said Fred Thiel, the company’s CEO.

He said the operational hash rate rose 2% month over month to 19.1 EH/s. Installed compute capacity stood at 23.1 EH/s. The changes were linked to replacing S19 Pro miners from Bitmain with S19 XP.

As of August 31, Marathon held a total of 13,286 BTC. The company sold 750 BTC during the month and plans to realise part of its BTC holdings in the first cryptocurrency in the future “to support monthly operations, treasury management and overall corporate goals”.

In August, Thiel indicated that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission would approve a spot exchange-traded fund based on the first cryptocurrency with a probability above 50%.

Argo Blockchain

According to the report from Argo Blockchain, the company mined 105 BTC in August, or 3.4 BTC per day. The drop from July’s 4.6 BTC per day was tied to downtime at the Helios data centre.

As of August 31, the company held 49 BTC. During the past month the miner installed and commissioned 900 BlockMiner devices with a capacity of about 95 PH/s at the Quebec facility. The remaining 728 units are expected to be acquired and deployed soon.

Earlier the company reported a net loss of $18.8 million for the first half of the year and reduced debt to $75 million. As of the end of June 2022, its debt stood at $143 million.

Riot Platforms

Riot Platforms (formerly Riot Blockchain) mined 333 BTC in August — down 19% from July’s 410 BTC.

The company received $31.6 million in loans to respond to electricity supply and demand from the Texas operator ERCOT. The amount marked a monthly record for Riot and exceeded the figure for all of 2022.

The firm still has 17,040 Bitcoin miners not connected in the damaged Building G of the Rockdale data centre after last December’s snowstorm. As a result, the company’s operating hash rate stands at 10.7 EH/s versus the total installed capacity of 12.5 EH/s.

Earlier Riot reported a net loss of $27.7 million in Q2. Revenue for the period was $76.7 million.

HIVE Blockchain

The mining company HIVE Blockchain Technologies in August mined 274 BTC (an average of 8.8 BTC per day).

The company’s hash rate stood at 3.69 EH/s, including its GPU fleet.

“We are pleased to announce the order of high-performance SuperMicro servers, which will further increase the capacity of our AI compute infrastructure by more than 2.5 times,” said HIVE’s President and CEO Aydin Kilich.

The company also announced plans to expand its AI and high-performance computing infrastructure in Canada in addition to its current operations in Sweden.

Bitfarms

In the last month of summer, Bitfarms mined 383 BTC, up 1.3% from July’s results. By the end of August the hash rate reached 5.6 EH/s as new devices were connected and the park was further optimised.

Of the 383 BTC mined, the company sold 323 BTC, receiving $9 million. Bitfarms reduced total outstanding debt by $1.9 million, leaving $11.8 million at month-end.

Hut 8 Mining

In August Hut 8 Mining generated 103 BTC (an average of 3.3 BTC per day). By month-end the mining company held 9,255 BTC.

As of the same period the miner estimated its hash rate at 2.6 EH/s.

“Our 9,255 BTC held on the balance sheet continue to provide Hut 8 and our shareholders with a strategic and differentiated advantage,” the statement said.

Bit Digital

Nasdaq-listed Bit Digital reported mining 139.9 BTC — up 5% from the previous month. The company attributed the rise to a higher average active hash rate, which stood at 2.03 EH/s at month-end.

Treasury reserves in Bitcoin and Ethereum were 758.5 BTC and 13,002.1 ETH, with fair market values of about $19.7 million and $21.4 million respectively (as of 31 August). The company’s cash and equivalents stood at $24.9 million.

Stock performance of mining companies over the past week:

• Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA): -19.63%;
• Argo Blockchain (ARBK): -7.08%;
• Riot Blockchain (RIOT): -10.97%;
• Hut 8 (HUT): -12.3%;
• HIVE Blockchain (HIVE): -12.95%;
• Bitfarms (BITF): -19.71%;
• Bit Digital (BTBT): -11.49%.

Earlier on 6 September, mining difficulty of the first cryptocurrency decreased by 2.65%. The metric reached 54.15 T.

In the same month, JPMorgan lowered the cost to mine 1 BTC from $21,000 to $18,000. This followed Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance’s revision of its methodology for the Electricity Consumption Index in mining.