Birfarms mining revenue fell by 42% in one month

What’s new? Canadian bitcoin miner Bitfarms’ mining revenue fell by 42% in a month: it mined 156 BTC worth $10,7 million in May, compared to 263 coins worth $18,1 million in April. The company noted that this is its first full month of post-halving operations.

Press release

The fourth halving of the bitcoin network took place on April 20. The event, which occurs every four years, halves the reward for mining blocks. This time, the reward was cut from 6,25 coins to 3,125 coins.

What else is known? In addition to the halving, Bitfarms also blamed the drop in bitcoin production on “unusually low temperatures” at its Rio Cuarto facility in Argentina. The weather conditions, which Bitfarms claimed were the worst in 44 years, forced the company to suspend mining at the local facility for eight days.

However, the company noted that the damage in Argentina was partially offset by a 4,2% decrease in network difficulty compared to April.

At the same time during the month, Bitfarms secured an additional 100MW for its farm in Paraguay near the city of Iguazu and Itaipu, the third-largest hydroelectric power plant in the world, thanks to a power purchase agreement with national grid operator ANDE.

The agreement will double the farm’s capacity to 200 MW, with an option to increase its hashrate by 6 EH/s once it becomes operational in 2025.

Bitfarms said in a June 3 press release that its hashrate is currently 9,5 EH/s. This ranks it among the top 5 miners, behind Marathon Digital, Core Scientific, CleanSpark, and Riot.

The company also plans to commission an additional 16 200 rigs, which will raise the hashrate to 12 EH/s. In addition to Paraguay, it also maintains data centers in Canada and the US.

Earlier, it was reported that Riot was considering buying Bitfarms for $950 million. Riot is already Bitfarms’ largest shareholder, holding 9,25% of its securities. The merger would have brought Riot closer to the biggest players — Marathon Digital and CleanSpark — in terms of production, but Bitfarms itself has rejected the deal.

Bitfarms shares are trading at $2,32 on NASDAQ under the ticker BITF, having added 4,02% overnight. They have gained 25,3% over the past month, but have lost 30% since the beginning of the year.