Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot Platforms has reported a record net income of $211.8 million for the first quarter of 2024, marking a 1,000% increase compared to the same period last year. However, the company fell short of analyst revenue estimates.
The Q1 results, released on May 1, revealed that mining revenue surged by 55.4% year-on-year to reach $74.6 million, primarily driven by a 131% increase in the price of Bitcoin. Despite this, Riot’s total revenue of $79.3 million fell 14% short of the estimates by research firm Zacks.
Riot attributed the slower growth in net income and mining revenue to lower Bitcoin production and higher mining costs. These were caused by the increase in Bitcoin’s network difficulty and hash rate. During Q1, Riot mined 1,364 BTC, marking a 36% decrease compared to Q1 2023. The average cost to mine 1 BTC was $23,000, which is 144% more expensive than the previous year. Riot stated that this increase was primarily due to the 89% rise in the global network hash rate.
Last month, Riot announced the development of a new facility in Corsicana, Texas, which is expected to become the largest dedicated Bitcoin mining facility in the world once fully operational. CEO Jason Les believes that the facility will help increase Riot’s hash rate capacity from 12.4 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 31 EH/s by the end of the year. The company aims to reach a hash rate of 41 EH/s when the Corsicana facility is fully deployed in 2025 and has a long-term goal of achieving 100 EH/s by 2027 or shortly after.
Riot currently holds the third-largest hash rate among miners, trailing behind Marathon Digital and Core Scientific, with hash rates of 24.7 EH/s and 16.9 EH/s, respectively, according to Hashrate Index.
On May 1, Riot’s share price fell by 2.87% to $9.82 but has risen by 1.1% in after-hours trading, according to Google Finance.
Bitcoin miners are adjusting their strategies following the halving event on April 20, which reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. This reduction means that the latter is currently valued at approximately $180,600.
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