Several leading U.S. publicly listed mining companies from Wall Street, including TeraWulf, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, and MARA, posted production gains in October.
Although for some, the BTC production results were the highest since the halving, the recent JPMorgan report reveals a continued decline in industry-wide revenue and profitability. The report, which highlights a record-high network hash rate, points to increasing operational challenges and intensifying competition across the sector.
TeraWulf Sees Modest Gains with Efficiency Improvements
TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) reported the mining of 150 Bitcoins in October, maintaining a daily average of approximately 4.8 BTC. The firm’s operational self-mining capacity rose 62% year-over-year to 8.1 EH/s.
Efforts to reduce energy costs yielded an average power expenditure of $36,789 per BTC, around $0.048 per kWh, a factor influenced by TeraWulf’s continued investment in zero-carbon energy sources. Upgrades to Lake Mariner facility’s mining fleet are underway, with older models being replaced by more efficient S19 XP miners, aiming for a self-mining hash rate of 8.7 EH/s by year-end.
Sean Farrell, Senior Vice President of Operations at TeraWulf
“October marked another productive month, with TeraWulf mining 150 bitcoin and sustaining an average daily production of around 5 bitcoin,” said Sean Farrell, Senior Vice President of Operations at TeraWulf. “In line with our previously outlined plans, we are accelerating the transition to more efficient mining hardware by replacing older miners at Lake Mariner with S19 XP models.”
Riot Expands Hash Rate with Corsicana Facility
Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) reported a notable production increase with 505 bitcoins mined, a 23% rise from September, and deployed hash rate growth to 29.4 EH/s, driven by enhancements at its Corsicana, Texas facility. It is worth noting, that October’s production output was the highest since the Bitcoin halving event in April.
Riot’s Corsicana site, projected to reach a capacity of 1 gigawatt upon completion, underpins the company’s long-term growth plans. Average power costs per kilowatt-hour in October increased slightly to 3.9 cents due to rising energy prices. Riot’s strategy includes further deployments at Corsicana and upcoming investor presentations to discuss its expansion.
Jason Les, CEO of Riot Blockchain
“In October, Riot achieved a new post-halving milestone in production, with 505 Bitcoin mined in the month,” said Jason Les, CEO of Riot. “This 23% increase in production from September is a reflection of both the ongoing growth in our deployed hash rate and of the efforts to improve our operational efficiency.”
MARA Eyes Record Capacity with 40.2 EH/s Hash Rate
As Finance Magnates already reported yesterday (Monday) MARA (NASDAQ: MARA) also reported the highest production since April’s halving, mining 717 Bitcoins, a 2% rise from the prior month.
The company’s energized hash rate grew 14% to 40.2 EH/s, moving it closer to its goal of 50 EH/s by year-end. MARA’s focus on optimizing transaction fees, which accounted for approximately 5% of its October BTC production, further contributed to profitability amid high network competition. MARA continues to rely on proprietary platforms like Slipstream and MARAPool to capitalize on increased transaction fees.
Fred Thiel, CEO, MARA, Source: LinkedIn
“Despite a slight month-over-month decrease in block wins, driven by the growth in global hash rate and the resulting rise in difficulty level, BTC production increased by 2% to 717 BTC,” said Fred Thiel, MARA’s Chairman and CEO
CleanSpark Accelerates Growth with New Facilities and Acquisitions
CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) achieved a record 655 Bitcoins mined in October, marking a 32% month-over-month increase. This growth aligns with the recent acquisition of GRIID Infrastructure and further expansions in Tennessee and Wyoming.
CleanSpark’s mining fleet now stands at an operational hash rate of 31.3 EH/s, supported by its Knoxville facilities, which contribute an additional 5 EH/s. CleanSpark’s power costs averaged 20.89 J/Th, and the company anticipates additional capacity from turnkey operations in Mississippi by year-end.
Zach Bradford, CEO of CleanSpark
“October was another remarkable operational month in the books for CleanSpark,” said CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford. “There are just a few short months remaining in the calendar year, but we have a handful of projects under construction that we expect to come online and hashing before the start of 2025.”
Mining Revenue Declines for Fourth Consecutive Month
Despite increased production, JPMorgan’s report indicated that BTC mining revenue and gross profit fell for the fourth consecutive month in October. Daily block reward gross profit dropped 2% to its lowest level on recent record, as miners earned an average of $41,800 per EH/s in daily block rewards – 1% less than in September.
The bank noted that the monthly average hashrate for the Bitcoin network surged to a record 702 EH/s, marking a 9% increase from the prior month and 62% year-over-year, contributing to higher mining difficulty and operational strain across the industry.
Transaction fees, which rose as high as 60% of the block reward in late October, provided some revenue relief for miners, though JPMorgan emphasized that these fees remain variable. In terms of market performance, the 14 publicly listed Bitcoin mining firms from Wall Street tracked by JPMorgan, including companies with exposure to high-performance computing (HPC), saw a collective 14% rise in total market cap to $23.9 billion.
