The top three Bitcoin mining companies being traded on the US stock market lost more than $1 billion in the second quarter of 2022, according to a report from Bloomberg. The losses, which were matched by those of the crypto exchanges miners rely on to bring their funds into the real world, came after the collapse of cryptocurrency prices, which led to the value of the companies’ holdings being written down.
The three companies, Core Scientific Inc., Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. and Riot Blockchain Inc., posted quarterly earnings reports that show losses of $862 million, $192 million and $366 million, respectively. Elsewhere, the US crypto exchange Coinbase Global registered a loss of $1.1 billion in the same period, while major Bitcoin investor Microstrategy Inc. also lost more than $1 billion.
The cause seems to be the drop in cryptocurrency prices as miners sold off their coins to cover their costs and fund expansion, as well as repay their debts, and this appears to be continuing into the third quarter of the year despite signs prices were rising again.. July saw the second highest Bitcoin sales of the year so far, with 6,200 coins sold. This follows a June in which 14,600 coins were sold, though only 3,900 were produced, according to figures from Arcane Crypto. Core Scientific is thought to have sold 80% of its holdings.
At the same time, the big mining concerns are taking out loans, with Marathon Digital taking out $100 million (and selling off mining rigs to raise a further $58 million) and Core Scientific going for a $100 million common stock purchase agreement with a private equity firm.
Bitcoin remains profitable for large-scale commercial operations, with each block solved currently worth 6.25BTC, or roughly $120,000 at today’s prices. Energy consumption remains one of the major costs, with US electricity costs rising 12.6% in the last year. The price of the ASICs used to mine the coins has dropped, according to figures from Forbes, by up to 70% this year. As prices fluctuate, less efficient miners tend to give up, leaving the market in the hands of those with higher-performance mining equipment.
Mining profitability, measured in dollars per terahash per second, peaked in 2017 at $3.39/TH/s. Today it sits at around ten cents/TH/s, having been at 41 cents in 2021.
