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With China cracking down on cryptocurrency mining earlier this year, the landscape has shaken up. Several existing mining operations have been able to scale up and grow their services, but Riot Blockchain has especially benefited from this paradigm shift.
Big Moves for Riot
Earlier this week, the mining company published its quarterly results, where it revealed record revenues in the second quarter of the year. As the results showed, Riot Blockchain netted an impressive $31.5 million from mining-related activities last quarter - up 1,540 percent from the same period the previous year, when the company earned $1.9 million. With skyrocketing revenues, Riot Blockchain also hit a record for net incomes, with the number standing at $19.3 million. That weighs much favorably to the $10.6 million loss that it suffered in the same period last year. Earnings per share also jumped to $0.22, compared to a loss of $0.31 from Q2 2020. Riot’s total number of Bitcoin mined increased by 38 percent in the second quarter, with the company generating 675 BTC. As of the second quarter, Riot Blockchain held $195.4 million in cash and Bitcoin holdings. As of the end of July, the company’s updated balance also stood at 2,687 BTC - about $132.6 million.
Expansion in the Works
Riot Blockchain made several expansionary moves in the second quarter, so this jump shouldn’t be much of a surprise. On April 7, the company announced the purchase of 42,000 s19j Antminers from Bitmain. Megan Brooks, Riot’s chief operations officer, explained that the $138.5 million deal would position the company and the United States at the center of the crypto mining space. The company also pointed out that it plans to get a minimum of 3,500 orders of s19j Antminers every month from November 2021 to October 2022. Asides from the orders, Riot Blockchain also made a big splash as it purchased Whinstone US Inc. - a data facility based in Texas - for $650 million. In its announcement, Riot explained that it would complete the purchase with a cash payment of $80 million, while the rest will come from stock sales to Whinstone’s parent company, Northern Data. Based in Texas, Whinstone operates the United States’ largest single Bitcoin mining facility. The miner’s data center holds 750 megawatts in capacity, with an additional 300 megawatts in the works. Riot’s chief executive Jason Les especially noted the Whinestone deal in the company's earnings call, saying:
“Riot is aggressively expanding its capacity at Whinstone, which is expected to provide the critical infrastructure necessary to successfully execute on driving continued growth for the company.”
Riot had hoped to achieve a hash rate capacity of 3.8 exahashes per second by the end of the year. The new Antminers will essentially double those numbers while also bringing the company’s inventory to 81,150 Antminers.