Despite Bitcoin’s (BTC) mixed summer performance, one of Wall Street’s largest cryptocurrency miners managed to increase production. Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) reported in its latest report a 45% increase in mining to 370 BTC in July.
According to Riot’s report published this week, BTC mining in July reached 370 tokens, growing significantly from the 255 reported in June when Bitcoin prices were falling sharply. Although this is 10% less than in July 2023 (410 BTC), considering the average prices from these two periods, Riot would earn much more from the smaller number of Bitcoins mined last month.
Riot Produces 370 #Bitcoin in July 2024 and Expands into Kentucky.
“July was a major step forward for Riot, as we increased our Bitcoin production 45% over June and completed a new acquisition, expanding our operations into a new market,” said @JasonLes_, CEO of Riot.
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— Riot Platforms, Inc. (@RiotPlatforms) August 5, 2024
The average number of BTC produced daily reached nearly 12 BTC, which at the average cryptocurrency value from June gives about $750,000 in daily revenue. Riot also reported that the operating hash rate in July increased by 37% to 15.5 EH/s compared to 11.4 EH/s reported in June and by 188% compared to 5.4 EH/s from July 2023.
Jason Les, CEO of Riot Blockchain
“July was a major step forward for Riot, as we increased our Bitcoin production 45% over June and completed a new acquisition, expanding our operations into a new market,” said Jason Les, CEO of Riot. “From this acquisition, Riot immediately added 1 EH of self-mining capacity and will begin to add additional hash rate based on already available capacity at the newly acquired Kentucky facilities.”
The acquisition Les refers to is the $92.5 million purchase of Kentucky-based Block Mining. The transaction, which closed on July 23, involves an $18.5 million cash payment and $74 million in Riot common stock.
Currently, the company holds 9,704 BTC in its reserves, which is 33% more than in July 2023. By the end of the month, they were valued at over $630 million.
Hut8 Also Reports New BTC Production Results
Another publicly traded Wall Street miner that reported its mining results for July was Hut8 (NASDAQ: HUT). Last month, it mined 105 BTC, two less than the previous month, using a power of 5.5 EH/s.
July highlights
– Continued realizing the impact of optimization efforts; average energy cost has declined materially since bringing Salt Creek online and completing the planned deployment of our curtailment software
– Announced plans for a site in the Texas Panhandle with 205…— Hut 8 (@Hut8Corp) August 5, 2024
Although the results are clearly more modest than Riot’s, it should be noted that Hut8 operates on a smaller scale. Moreover, it is not in the group of the five largest Bitcoin miners listed on Wall Street.
The company may soon receive a substantial cash injection, as one of its competitors, Marathon Digital, is to pay Hut8 Chief Strategy Officer, Michael Ho, $138 million in connection with a contract breach.
The lawsuit alleged that Ho developed a growth strategy for Marathon, including plans for a large-scale Bitcoin mining facility in North America. Marathon was accused of implementing this strategy without compensating Ho for the proprietary information he provided.
Meanwhile, Argo Blockchain, another publicly traded cryptocurrency miner, reported its mining results. The result of 48 BTC turned out to be slightly better than the 44 mined in June 2023. However, this is significantly less than the 129 tokens acquired in the same period last year.
