Riot Platforms, a prominent Bitcoin mining firm, has made headlines with its Q1 2024 performance. The company reported a staggering $211.8 million net income, setting a new record and marking a 1,000% increase from the same period last year. However, it fell short of analyst revenue estimates.
The first quarter results, released on May 1, revealed a 55.4% year-on-year surge in mining revenue to $74.6 million. This impressive growth was primarily fueled by a 131% increase in Bitcoin’s price.
Despite these gains, Riot’s total revenue of $79.3 million was 14% below the estimates projected by research firm Zacks. The company attributed this to lower Bitcoin production and increased mining costs, resulting from a rise in Bitcoin’s network difficulty and hash rate.
In Q1, Riot mined 1,364 BTC, marking a 36% decrease from the first quarter of 2023. The average cost to mine 1 BTC was $23,000, which is 144% more expensive than the same period last year. Riot attributed this increase to an 89% rise in the global network hash rate.
Riot announced the development of a new facility in Corsicana, Texas last month. CEO Jason Les envisions this to become the world’s largest dedicated Bitcoin mining facility once fully operational.
Riot is on track to boost its hash rate capacity from 12.4 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 31 EH/s by the end of the year. The company anticipates that its hash rate will further increase to 41 EH/s when the Corsicana facility is fully deployed in 2025. Riot has set a long-term goal to reach 100 EH/s in 2027 or shortly after.
Currently, Riot boasts the third-largest hash rate among miners, trailing only rivals Marathon Digital and Core Scientific, which have hash rates of 24.7 EH/s and 16.9 EH/s respectively. Despite a 2.87% drop in Riot’s share price to $9.82 on May 1, it rebounded by 1.1% in after-hours trading.
Bitcoin miners are currently adjusting to the blockchain’s mining rewards halving event on April 20, which reduced the reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC — the latter currently valued at around $180,600. This is a significant moment in the Bitcoin mining industry and will undoubtedly shape its future trajectory.
