Bitdeer has seen a flurry of activity in recent days as it makes strategic moves in the face of falling revenue and continues to move forward with long-term plans.
The Singapore-based, Nasdaq-listed Bitdeer purchased 100 Bitcoin this week in two operations. It bought 50 BTC at $90,280 on Feb. 25, the same day its fourth-quarter 2024 financial report was released. On Feb. 27, it purchased another 50 BTC at $81,475 each, for a total outlay of $8,587,750. On Feb. 23, before the purchases, Bitdeer held 911 BTC.
Bitdeer buys the dip, announces repurchase
On Feb. 28, the company announced the completion of a $9 million share buyback program and the launch of a $20 million share repurchase program that will run through Feb. 28, 2026. The new round of repurchasing will be carried out gradually and funded with the company’s cash on hand.
These actions come against the backdrop of two quarters of falling revenue. Bitdeer Technologies Group, which includes Bitdeer AI, showed healthy revenue growth in the first half of 2024. Total revenue reached $119.5 million in Q1, compared to $72.6 million in the same quarter of 2023. It also registered net income of $600,000, compared to a net loss of $9.5 million a year earlier.
Q2 2024 brought in $99.2 million against $93.8 million in Q2 2023. It showed a net loss of $17.7 million, versus a net loss of $40.4 million in 2023.
Halving and market trends hit Bitdeer hard
The fourth Bitcoin halving in April 2024, when the reward for mining a block was reduced from 6.26 BTC to 3.125 BTC, rocked the gross profit margins of the entire mining industry. Bitdeer revenue fell to $62.0 million in Q3, down from $87.3 million the previous year. Q4 showed $69 million in revenue, down from $114.8 million in Q4 2023. Net loss skyrocketed from $5.0 million in Q4 2023 to $531.9 million.
In a statement at the release of the Q3 report, Bitdeer chief business officer Matt Kong attributed the declining indicators to the halving, as well as the increased global hash rate, decreased hosting revenue and one-time research and one-time development costs.
The last month has also seen a downturn in miners’ stock in line with broader stock and crypto market trends. Bitdeer was the loss leader among them, losing 55% of its value as the industry overall lost $13 billion.
Bitdeer has gone into ASIC design
The R&D outlay Kong referred to was connected with its SEAL02 chip development. The company announced a roadmap for designing application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in June. Also in June, Bitdeer paid $140 million in stock for chip designed DesiweMiner and integrated its staff into Bitdeer’s ASIC design team.
At that time, the first generation, SEAL01, had been released and was expected to go into mass production in the Q4 2024. SEAL02 was expected to be released in the Q3 2024, and SEAL03 in Q4 2024. SEAL04 should be released in in Q2 2025 for mass delivery in Q4 2025.
At the time of writing, Bitdeer has 1,380,679 reservations for its SEAL A2 model and plans to begin shipping in March.
Also this week, the company’s CEO Jihan Wu committed to the sale of up to 4 million ordinary shares between March and June 15, 2025 under a plan finalized in December. The company stressed that the plan complies with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s Rule 10b5-1 on insider trading.
