Key Points
- Riot Platforms has now amassed over 10,000 Bitcoin, showing a 37% increase from the previous year.
- Despite this, the company’s Bitcoin mining production has declined due to increasing energy costs and other factors.
Bitcoin mining company, Riot Platforms, recently announced that it has achieved a significant milestone. Its Bitcoin holdings have now exceeded 10,000 BTC, a 37% increase compared to the same period last year.
Challenges Faced by Riot Platforms
Despite the positive news about its Bitcoin holdings, Riot Platforms has experienced a decline in its production. This is due to rising energy costs and the impact of Bitcoin’s halving in April.
In August 2024, Riot Platforms produced 322 Bitcoin, a 13% drop from the 370 Bitcoin it produced the previous month. It’s a 3% decline from the 333 Bitcoin mined in August 2023. The company attributes this decline in production to the high summer temperatures in Texas, which led to an increased demand for energy and consequently, higher prices.
Riot Platforms also revealed that it did not sell any of its mined Bitcoin in August, unlike the same month the previous year when it sold 300 Bitcoin for $8.6 million. The company’s CEO, Jason Les, explained the strategy employed to navigate the situation. He noted that despite the production dip, the company managed to optimize its energy usage by generating power credits. This reduced its operational costs at its Rockdale, Texas facility to $20 per megawatt-hour (MWh). However, the other Texas facility in Corsicana experienced higher costs of $39/MWh.
Future Plans and Expanding Hashrate
In spite of these setbacks, Riot Platforms reported an average operating hashrate of 14.5 exahashes per second (EH/s) in August, a 224% increase from the same month last year. The company aims to increase its hashrate to 28 EH/s by the end of Q3 and 36 EH/s by the end of the year.
Riot Platforms also shared its expansion plans. It is currently developing Phase 1 (400 MW) of its Corsicana Facility. Once completed, this will increase the total mining capacity to 1 gigawatt (1,000 MW). The company expects its newest mining building, “Building B1,” to be fully operational by the end of September.
