Bitcoin mining company Riot Blockchain reported a record net income of $211.8 million for the first quarter of 2024, marking a substantial 1,000% increase compared to last year. Despite this impressive performance, the company fell short of the revenue expectations set by analysts.
Riot’s Q1 financial results, released on May 1, revealed that mining revenue surged by 55.4% year-on-year to $74.6 million, primarily fueled by a 131% rise in Bitcoin’s price. However, the company’s total revenue of $79.3 million was 14% lower than research firm Zacks had forecasted.
The increase in net income and mining revenue was somewhat offset by decreased Bitcoin production and higher mining costs, attributed to the growing difficulty and hash rate of the Bitcoin network.
During the first quarter, Riot mined 1,364 BTC, a 36% decline from the same period in 2023. The average cost to mine one BTC was $23,000, 144% higher than the previous year, mainly due to an 89% increase in the global network hash rate.
Riot recently announced the establishment of a new facility in Corsicana, Texas, which, upon completion, is anticipated to become the world’s largest dedicated Bitcoin mining facility. CEO Jason Les aims to ramp up the company’s hash rate capacity from 12.4 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 31 EH/s by year-end, with further expansion to 41 EH/s after the Corsicana facility is fully operational in 2025. Riot’s long-term objective is to achieve a hash rate of 100 EH/s by 2027.
As of May 1, Riot ranks third in hash rate capacity among miners, trailing Marathon Digital and Core Scientific, with 24.7 EH/s and 16.9 EH/s, respectively, according to the Hashrate Index.
According to Google Finance, despite a 2.87% drop in share price on May 1 to $9.82, Riot’s stock saw a 1.1% increase in after-hours trading.
Bitcoin miners are adapting following the halving event on April 20, which reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC per block, currently valued at approximately $180,600.