April’s Bitcoin Halving Leads to Biggest Q2 Losses for Riot Platforms

In the second quarter of this year, Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million, compared to $27.4 million in the same quarter last year.

The US Bitcoin mining company’s biggest losses are the result of the continued impact of the Bitcoin halving in April.

Riot’s Q2 performance

According to the quarterly report, Riot reported total revenue of $70 million in the second quarter of 2024, down from $76.7 million in the same period last year. This decrease was primarily driven by a $9.7 million decline in engineering revenue, partially offset by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin mining revenue.

The company produced 844 Bitcoin during the same period, which represented a 52% decrease from 1,775 BTC in the second quarter of 2023, attributed to the “halving” of the block grant in April 2024 and the increasing difficulty of the network.

The average direct cost to mine Bitcoin soared to $25,327 per BTC from $5,734 in Q2 2023, driven by a halving and 68% increase in the global network’s hash rate. Despite these challenges, Riot said its mining revenue grew to $55.8 million, compared to $49.7 million a year earlier, due to higher average BTC prices and a improved operational hash rate.

The company said it maintained a strong financial position with $646.5 million in working capital, including $481.2 million in cash. In addition, he had 9,334 unencumbered Bitcoins, worth approximately $585 million, all mined through his operations.

Riot CEO Jason Les commented:

“The second quarter saw the Bitcoin network ‘halve’ in April this year, a pre-programmed event whereby the Bitcoin block grant miners on the network receive is reduced to halved every four years. Despite this reduction in production available to all Bitcoin miners, Riot posted revenue of $70.0 million in the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.” .

Block mining acquisition

Riot acquired Kentucky firm Block Mining in a $92.5 million deal last month, which included $18.5 million in cash from Riot reserves and $74 million in Riot common stock.

After the move, the mining company reported an immediate increase in hash rate, expanded its geographic footprint and entered additional energy markets outside of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region. .

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