Key Points
- Riot Platforms produced 215 Bitcoin in May, marking a 43% decrease from the previous month due to the Bitcoin halving event.
- The company launched a new mining facility in Texas and plans to increase its total hash rate capacity to 41 EH/s by 2025.
Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms reported a production of 215 Bitcoin (BTC) in May, a 43% drop from the previous month.
The decline in mining revenue is a direct consequence of the April 20 Bitcoin halving event, which cut the mining rewards to 3.125 BTC. Riot had foreseen this decrease and planned an infrastructure upgrade to maintain Bitcoin production after the halving.
New Mining Facility in Texas
In May, Riot inaugurated a new Bitcoin mining facility in Corsicana, Texas. This facility added 3.1 exahashes per second (EH/s), increasing Riot’s total self-mining capacity to 14.7 EH/s — a 17% rise from the previous month.
The mining facility is currently operating at 100 megawatts (MW) and will scale up to 1 gigawatt (1,000 MWs) once fully developed.
Infrastructure Development for Hash Rate Growth
Riot aims to reach a total hash rate capacity of 31 EH/s by the end of 2024 and 41 EH/s by 2025. To achieve this, the company has entered into a long-term master purchase agreement with MicroBT, which included an initial order of 33,280 miners for the new facility.
The strategies Riot is implementing are designed to ensure profitability, particularly during bear markets.
In addition to upgrading to more efficient mining equipment to reduce operational costs, Riot has also introduced a new strategy, as explained by Jason Les, CEO of Riot: “Riot’s unique power strategy, which we typically employ most actively in the summer months, has already started to demonstrate significant results for this year, generating approximately $7.3 million in power and demand response credits in May.”
On May 28, Riot Platforms proposed to acquire its competitor, Bitfarms, at a significant premium over its share price. At the time of the offer, Riot was already Bitfarms’ largest shareholder, holding a 9.25% stake. The acquisition proposal included a mix of cash and common stock, amounting to $950 million in equity value for shareholders, which represents a 24% premium over Bitfarms’ one-month volume-weighted average share price as of May 24.
This offer comes at a time when Bitfarms’ management is in transition as it seeks a new CEO.
