Riot Platforms’ Bitcoin holdings cross 10K BTC, production drops

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot Platforms said it has crossed 10,000 Bitcoin held by the company, which is a 37% increase over corresponding period last year. 

However, the company reported a 13% drop in Bitcoin produced during August 2024 over July. Bitcoin mining firms have been struggling to tackle profitability due to rising power costs, as well as to adapt to the Bitcoin network’s April “halving” event, which reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per 210,000 blocks.

As a result, Bitcoin miners are looking to diversify operations into data centers to boost revenue. However, running an artificial intelligence or high-performance data center is a lot more expensive than running a crypto mining facility.

Riot’s production drops, no Bitcoin sale in Aug. 

Riot produced 322 Bitcoin in August compared to 370 in July. That is also a drop of about 3% over August 2023, when Riot had produced 333 Bitcoin. The company did not sell any Bitcoin in August this year compared to 300 Bitcoin it sold in August 2023 and earned net proceeds of $8.6 million. 

“August is historically the hottest month of the year in Texas, resulting in some of the highest periods of demand on the ERCOT grid,” Jason Les, CEO of Riot, said in a statement. 

Riot to focus on optimizing energy costs as miners struggle

Les said that the company optimized its energy costs while making more power available to the grid during periods of peak demand. As a result, Riot generated power credits in August that led to an all-in power cost at its Rockdale facility in Texas of $20 megawatt per hour (MWh). The company’s Corsicana facility in Texas, which purchases energy at the real-time spot price, achieved an all-in power cost for the month of $39/MWh.

Riot’s average operating hashrate in August was 14.5 exahash per second (EH/s), which is a drop of 7% from July’s 15.5 EH/s but is up 224% over August 2023. A higher hashrate indicates that more computing power is required to verify and add transactions to a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. This increased computational demand enhances the security of the cryptocurrency, as it would require more miners and significant time and energy to compromise the network.

Riot said it has also begun increasing the hashrate with its newly acquired Kentucky facilities, where it intends to achieve its third-quarter hashrate target of 28 EH/s and year-end hashrate growth target of 36 EH/s.

Related: Bitcoin mining CEO eyes hashrate contracts to offset rising costs

Riot Platforms did not immediately respond to Cointelegraph’s request for comment.

Riot elaborates on expansion plans

The company said it is currently developing Phase 1 (400 MW) of its Corsicana Facility, which, once fully developed, is expected to total 1 gigawatt (1,000 MW) in developed mining capacity. Elaborating further, Les said:

“We have made significant progress towards completing the development of our third 100 MW building at the Corsicana Facility, Building B1, and the deployment of miners within it, which will be completed and operating at full capacity by the end of September.”

Riot, Bitfarms bickering continues

Riot Platforms holds a 19.9% stake in Bitcoin mining firm Bitfarms, making it the largest shareholder. Riot has sent an open letter to Bitfarms’ shareholders, advocating for further changes to the company’s board of directors. The shareholders’ meeting is set for October 29, where Riot is anticipated to push for reforms aimed at enhancing governance and maximizing value for all shareholders.

The move comes after Bitfarms announced its acquisition of Stronghold Digital Mining for about $125 million, which also takes into account assumed debt of about $50 million.

Bitfarms has responded to Riot Platforms’ open letter to shareholders by asserting that the upcoming special shareholder meeting is not related to corporate governance. Bitfarms contends that Riot Platforms’ proposed changes to the board are driven by its own interests. Additionally, Bitfarms emphasized that recent modifications to its board and management were made independent of Riot Platforms.

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