Riot Platforms, a prominent Bitcoin mining company, has announced a significant increase in its Bitcoin holdings despite a decline in production in August 2024.
Growth in Bitcoin Holdings
Riot Platforms has increased its Bitcoin holdings to over 10,000 coins, marking a 37% increase from the previous year. Despite the positive growth in holdings, the company saw a 13% reduction in Bitcoin production in August 2024 compared to July.
Profitability challenges and energy costs
Bitcoin mining firms have been facing profitability issues after the Bitcoin halving event in April, which reduced the mining reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block. With rising energy costs, miners are considering diversifying their operations into more energy-intensive sectors like data centers and artificial intelligence, despite the higher operational costs.
Production performance dynamics
In August, Riot produced 322 Bitcoin, down from 370 in July and slightly lower than the 333 Bitcoin mined in August 2023. Notably, unlike last August, when the company sold 300 Bitcoin, no Bitcoin sales occurred this August. "August is historically the hottest month of the year in Texas, resulting in some of the highest periods of demand on the ERCOT grid," stated Jason Les, CEO of Riot. Les also noted that Riot managed to reduce its power costs by making more power available to the grid during peak demand periods, resulting in the generation of power credits and reducing the all-in power cost at its Rockdale facility to $20 per megawatt-hour (MWh). Meanwhile, the Corsicana facility, which purchases energy at real-time spot prices, reported a cost of $39/MWh for the same period. Riot's operating hash rate in August was 14.5 exahashes per second (EH/s), down 7% from July’s 15.5 EH/s but up a significant 224% from August 2023.
Despite a reduction in Bitcoin production in August 2024, Riot Platforms shows growth in its operational capacity and assets while striving to optimize energy costs.
Comments