April’s Bitcoin Halving Drives Riot Platforms’ Widened Q2 Losses

In the second quarter of this year, Riot Platforms recorded a net loss of $84.4 million, compared to $27.4 million in the previous year’s same quarter.

The American Bitcoin mining firm’s widened losses are a result of the continued impact of April’s Bitcoin halving.

Riot’s Q2 Performance

According to the quarterly report, Riot reported a total revenue of $70 million in the second quarter of 2024, down from $76.7 million in the same period last year. This decrease was primarily driven by a $9.7 million drop in Engineering revenues, partially offset by a $6 million rise in Bitcoin mining revenue.

The company produced 844 Bitcoin during the same period, which represented a 52% decrease from 1,775 BTC in Q2 2023, attributed to the April 2024 block subsidy ‘halving’ and increased network difficulty.

The average direct cost to mine Bitcoin soared to $25,327 per BTC, up from $5,734 in Q2 2023, driven by the halving and a 68% rise in the global network hash rate. Despite these challenges, Riot said that its mining revenue grew to $55.8 million, compared to $49.7 million in the prior year, owing to higher average BTC prices and an improved operational hash rate.

The company asserted that it maintained a strong financial position with $646.5 million in working capital, including $481.2 million in cash. Additionally, it held 9,334 unencumbered Bitcoin, worth approximately $585 million, all mined through its operations.

Riot CEO Jason Les commented,

“The second quarter saw the Bitcoin network ‘halving’ in April of this year, a preprogrammed event whereby the Bitcoin block subsidy received by miners from the network is cut in half every four years. Despite this reduction in available production for all Bitcoin miners, Riot posted $70.0 million in revenue for the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.”

Block Mining Acquisition

Riot acquired the Kentucky-based firm Block Mining in a $92.5 million deal last month, which included $18.5 million in cash from Riot’s reserves and $74 million in Riot common stock.

Following the move, the mining firm reported an immediate increase in hash rate, expanded its geographical footprint, and entered additional energy markets outside the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region.