Riot reported that it currently holds more than 10,000 Bitcoins, a 37% increase compared to the same period last year.

Riot reported a 13% decrease in Bitcoin production in August 2024 compared to July. Bitcoin mining companies have faced revenue challenges due to rising energy costs and the effects of the Bitcoin network halving event in April. This incident reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3,125 BTC.

As a result, Bitcoin miners are looking to turn to data centers to increase their revenue. However, operating AI or high-performance data centers is much more costly than operating crypto mining facilities.

Riot mined 322 Bitcoins in August, down from 370 Bitcoins in July. Additionally, this figure represents a decrease of approximately 3% compared to August 2023; At that time, the company produced 333 Bitcoins. While Riot sold 300 Bitcoins in August last year and earned a net income of $8.6 million, no Bitcoins were sold in August this year.

“August is historically the hottest month of the year in Texas, resulting in periods of peak demand on the ERCOT grid,” said Riot CEO Jason Les. Les noted that the company delivers more power to the grid during peak demand periods while optimizing energy costs. As a result, Riot achieved an energy cost of $20 per megawatt hour at its Rockdale facility in Texas.

The company’s Corsicana, Texas, facility purchases energy costs at real-time spot prices and achieved a cost of $39 per megawatt hour for the month. Riot’s average hashrate in August was measured at 14.5 exahashes per second (EH/s), representing a 7% decrease from 15.5 EH/s in July but a 224% increase compared to August 2023.

The increase in hashrate reflects the increase in computing power required to add transactions to a cryptocurrency’s blockchain. This means that it will take more miners, time and energy to compromise the network by increasing the security of the cryptocurrency.

Riot announced that it has begun increasing hashrate with its newly acquired Kentucky facilities and plans to reach its third quarter hashrate target of 28 EH/s and its year-end target of 36 EH/s.

The company also stated that it is developing Phase 1 (400 MW) of the Corsicana Facility and expects it to reach a total mining capacity of 1 gigawatt (1,000 MW) when completed.

“We have made significant progress in the development and deployment of miners within B1, our third 100 MW building at the Corsicana Facility, and will be fully operational by the end of September,” said Les.

Riot Platforms is the largest shareholder of Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms, holding a 19.9% ​​stake. Riot sent an open letter to Bitfarms’ shareholders, advocating for further changes to the company’s board of directors.

The shareholder meeting is expected to be held on October 29, and Riot is expected to propose governance improvements and reforms to increase value for all shareholders.

This move comes after Bitfarms announced the acquisition of Stronghold Digital Mining, valued at approximately $125 million. This acquisition includes approximately $50 million of assumed debt.