Bitcoin mining difficulty was relatively stable during November, increasing by just 0.1%–good news for Bitcoin miners who had witnessed a 17% increase the month before.
DMG Blockchain became this month’s top miner, producing 106 Bitcoin per EH/s, closely followed by Bitfarms (105.3 BTC) and Bit Digital (104.4 BTC). Hive Blockchain was not included in this month’s mining update due to a lack of transparency on the firm’s Bitcoin hodl, as opposed to previous months.
Argo Blockchain (ARBK)
Argo Blockchain released its monthly update early on the morning of December 9, 2022 and within a few hours, The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) temporarily suspended the securities with immediate effect. Shares were also suspended on the NASDAQ Global Select list, the highest tier of the exchange, leaving shareholders to speculate that more bad news is to follow.
The issues over the last 12-18 months for Argo Blockchain have been well documented, culminating in a severe overleveraged debt position, during a Bitcoin bear cycle. As of now, Argo Blockchain is trying to allow shares to begin trading again through an appeal to the exchange. The company is working with third parties to restructure, including the selling of distressed assets, in order to not file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Read: Miners face millions in debt payments as revenues dry up
From an operational perspective, the company mined 198 Bitcoin during the month amounting to $3.55 million in revenue, a drop of $0.5 million when compared to October’s production. The mining margin also reduced from 32% to 29%. Although the total operational hashrate remains at 2.5 EH/s, production continues to remain low in comparison to other peer miners like Hive Blockchain, who produced 264 Bitcoin with effectively the same operational hash rate.
Argo Blockchain sold 210 Bitcoin during the month to pay for energy costs and other operational expenses and currently has a hodl of 126 Bitcoin, as at November 30, 2022.
Bitfarms (BITF)
Bitfarms closed out the calendar year in style, nearing 5,000 Bitcoin produced in the year. Having the highest production by EH/s in seven of the last ten months, there is a real expectation that they will finish in the top three miners for the month.
They produced 453 Bitcoin in November, at a rate of 15.1 Bitcoin per day, albeit a reduction of 3.7% compared with October. They sold 853 Bitcoin during the month for $14.6 million in revenues, some of which was used to repay $6.7 million of their Bitcoin backed facility with Galaxy Digital (GLXY). Some $16.5 million remains unpaid. They also used $3.2 million to pay off more equipment related indebtedness.
Their operational hash rate increased to 4.4 EH/s, a 5 % increase from the October rate and a growth of 110% from November 2021. This increase was supported by the new capacity coming online in Quebec, and the company remains on track to achieve 5.0 EH/s by the end of the year.
Bitfarms held 1,664 BTC in custody on November 30, 2022, representing a total value of approximately $28.5 million based on a BTC price of US$17,100.
Bit Digital (BTBT)
Bit Digital produced 144.1 Bitcoin in November, or 4.8 Bitcoin per day– a drop of 2.4% from October. Although they have 38,593 bitcoin miners achieving a total of 2.7 EH/s, they only have 39% of the mining fleet–or 14,978 bitcoin miners representing 1.40 EH/s–deployed.
The company has a total hodl of 950 Bitcoin and 7,064.7 Ethereum providing a current value of $25.4 million. It should be noted that this miner has no debt on the balance sheet, reported as at September 30, 2022.
CleanSpark (CLSK)
Cleanspark continued to set monthly mining records in November, producing a total 535 Bitcoin in month, for a total of 4,157 Bitcoin in 2022. The Las Vegas, Nevada-based firm mined 17.8 Bitcoin per day, with a high of 19.4 per day during the month. The company increased its operational hashrate by 8% during the month from 5.1 EH/s to 5.5 EH/s.
CleanSpark sold 544 bitcoins in November 2022 at an average of $17,300 per Bitcoin, bringing revenues of $9.4 million to fund operational activities. CleanSpark has a current hodl of 290 Bitcoin, as at October 31, 2022.
Having had an amazing year, the company has an even greater hurdle to achieve 20 EH/s by the end of 2023, which will be challenging when we consider the current Bitcoin price. With debt becoming more expensive, and their Bitcoin hodl valued at less than $5 million, it doesn’t leave many levers for CleanSpark to choose from.
Digihost Technology (DGHI)
Digihost Technology produced 61.32 Bitcoin at a rate of two Bitcoin per day, a reduction of 15% on the average day rate achieved in October. They sold 81 Bitcoin during the month and have a current hodl as of month's end of 98 Bitcoin and 800 Ethereum, valued at $2.74 million. In addition, the company held cash of approximately $2.62 million at the end of November, providing a total of $5.35 million and continues to operate within cash flow and remain debt free, as at this update.
Digihost Technology is expecting to complete documentation and approval requirements related to the acquisition of a 60 MW power plant in North Tonawanda, New York during Q1 2023, which should increase its current hash rate of 650 PH/s to approximately 1.7 EH/s–an increase of over 150%.
Work continues to progress with the Alabama Phase 1 build out, on time and to budget, and is expected to deliver an extra 22 MW of power by the end of Q1 2023, providing the company with total computing power to deliver 2.25 EH/s.
DMG Blockchain (DMGI)
DMG Blockchain had a great mining month producing, 88 Bitcoin at a daily rate of 2.9 BTC per day, an increase of 11.3% over the October daily Bitcoin production. They sold 45 Bitcoin in the month to cover operational expenses and have a current hodl of 389 Bitcoin valued at $6.7 million.
The company has increased its operational hash rate to 842 PH/s and during the month had an average operational hash rate of 830 PH/s, having received their September order of S19 XP mining rigs. The company is still on track to deliver 1.0 EH/s by the end of the year, subject to deliveries and installation of miners.
Hut 8 (HUT)
Hut 8 produced 238 Bitcoin in the month of November at a rate of 7.9 Bitcoin per day, a significant decrease of 17.7% from the daily rate of 9.6 Bitcoin per day achieved during October. This was due to the ongoing mediation proceedings with Validus Power Corp, their energy supplier for the North Bay site in Ontario, who it appears have breached certain obligations under the terms of the power purchase agreement.
During the month Hut 8 installed 2,000 new miners in Medicine Hat, the same site serviced by Validus Power. The firm’s total deployed hashrate rose to 3.27 EH/s, of which only 2.44 EH/s is online.
Hut 8 did not sell any Bitcoin during November and increased their total hodl to 8,687 Bitcoin, currently valued at $152.6 million.
Marathon Digital (MARA)
Having had a great month in terms of production for October, Marathon Digital reverted back to a disappointing production for November mining 472 coins at a rate of 15.7 Bitcoin per day–a drop of 20.7% on its October daily rate of nearly 20 Bitcoin per day. This reduction in production during November was caused by the curtailment of power at the King Mountain site in Texas, caused by spot market pricing of energy.
The company, like Hut 8, continues to hodl all the Bitcoin mined and currently have 11,757 Bitcoin valued at $201 million, of which 7,557, valued at $129.2 million is restricted and collateralized against two loans with Silvergate Bank totalling $80 million, having repaid $20 million of the $50 million revolving credit line in month. This unrestricted total of 4,200 Bitcoin, valued at over $71 million along with $61.7 million gives them some runway into 2023.
The company has approximately 69,000 active miners, producing approximately 7.0 EH/s. A further 14,000 S19 XPs have also been installed in Garden City, Texas during the month, pending energization. The Company expects to have between 7.0 EH/s and 9.0 EH/s online by December 31, 2022 and maintains its goal of 23 EH/s by mid 2023.
Riot Blockchain (RIOT)
Riot Blockchain’s performance rebounded strongly against September’s numbers. The company produced 521 Bitcoin at an average rate of 17.4 per day, a 5.8% increase on the previous month. This was achieved with an increased hashrate of 7.7 EH/s, having increased its deployed fleet of 72,428 miners. The company also received 10,512 new S19-series with approximately 6,912 miners staged for deployment. This will take their operational hashrate to 9.7 EH/s. Riot Blockchain is still on target to achieve their growth to 12.5 EH/s by the end of Q1 2023.
However, Riot Blockchain CEO Jason Les acknowledged that the total should have been closer to 660 Bitcoin for the month, and that lower than expected returns from the Braiins mining pool was predominantly the cause. To enable a more consistent future return, Riot Blockchain have decided to move their hash rate to another mining pool.
Riot Blockchain sold 450 Bitcoin for a total of $8.1 million during the month to cover operational costs, and has a hodl of 6,897 valued at close to $117.9 million.
