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After incurring a number of impairment losses brought on by the decline in cryptocurrency prices, the three biggest US publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies lost more than US$1 billion in the second quarter.
Bitcoin Miners In Deep Red
In the three months that ended June 30, Core Scientific Inc., Marathon Digital Holdings Inc., and Riot Blockchain Inc. all reported net losses of US$862 million, US$192 million, and US$366 million, respectively. Following the approximately 60% decline in the price of Bitcoin during the quarter, other large miners such Bitfarms Ltd. and Greenidge Generation Holdings Inc., which released results on Monday, were also obliged to write down the value of their holdings.
Source: Bloomberg
Although there has been some relief in recent weeks for the shares of cryptocurrency mining companies, they remain significantly negative. In order to pay off debt and meet operating expenses in the most recent quarter, the miners were forced to sell some of the Bitcoin they had been hoarding. Through the third quarter, that persisted.
Not just the miners had huge losses last quarter; other members of the sector as well. The biggest US cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase Global Inc., reported a loss of US$1.1 billion, and MicroStrategy Inc. also experienced a net loss of more than US$1 billion.
Top public miners mined 3,900 coins in June, but sold 14,600 of them, according to Mellerud. In June, Core Scientific sold approximately 80% of its coins to pay operating expenses and support growth.
To stay solvent, the miners are selling their assets and mining machines and taking on more debt. Marathon expanded its previous US$100 million line of credit in July by refinancing it with a new US$100 million term loan from cryptocurrency-friendly bank Silvergate Capital Corp. In addition, the miner sold its mining equipment for US$58 million. With B. Riley Principal Capital II, Core Scientific has signed a common stock purchase agreement for US$100 million.
Public corporations with significant Bitcoin holdings on their balance sheets have been warned by the US Securities and Exchange Commission not to exclude price fluctuations when reporting results. Losses are not realized until the tokens are actually sold.
Featured image from Getty Images, chart from TradingView, and Bloomberg