Bitcoin Miner Riot Platforms’ Second-Quarter Loss Widens to $84.4M as Costs Surge

Riot said the increase in losses was due to selling, general and administrative expenses of $61.2 million, compared to $41.4 million a year earlier.

The bitcoin halving, which cuts the reward miners receive for adding new blocks to the network, reduced the amount of bitcoin Riot produced during the quarter.

Bitcoin {{BTC}} mining firm Riot Platforms (RIOT) announced that its second-quarter losses tripled from the previous year as its overall operating costs increased by 48%.

The Castle Rock, Colo.-based company reported a net loss of $84.4 million, or $0.32 per share. Selling, general and administrative expenses rose to $61.2 million. More than half of that, $32.1 million, was stock compensation expense related to new grants under its long-term incentive program. The quarter’s net loss also included a $76.4 million decrease in the fair value of its bitcoin holdings.

April’s Bitcoin halving reduced the reward miners receive for adding new blocks to the blockchain by 50%, reducing the number of bitcoins Riot mined during the quarter. The company mined 844 BTC, 52% less than the previous Q2.

The cost of mining Bitcoin jumped from $5,734 to $25,327 due to a 68% increase in the network’s hashrate. Hashrate is a measure of the total computing power used to process transactions on the network. A higher hashrate means miners must deploy more power and incur higher costs to mine each BTC.

RIOT shares were down 0.3% in pre-market trading as of 09:35 UTC on Thursday. Bitcoin is down 2.7% in the past 24 hours, while the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20), a measure of the broader crypto market, has lost 4.5%.

Read More: Bitcoin’s Post-Halving Surge Ends 100 Days After Last Quadruple Halving