Public Bitcoin miners saw their daily revenues fall for a third month in a row in September, and the decline coincided with a rise in the network’s difficulty, creating a challenging environment for the industry.
According to a report by JPMorgan, the Bitcoin network’s hash rate rose to 643 exahashes per second (EH/s) in September, a 2% increase from August. Despite this increase, miners’ earnings per EH/s fell 6% from the previous month, to an average of $42,100. This drop in revenue comes despite Bitcoin, the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market cap, gaining about 7% during the month, recouping most of its losses from August.
However, the combined market value of the 14 U.S.-listed Bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan rose 4% in September to $21 billion. Below is an overview of some of the best-performing miners during the month.
- Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA): The company mined 705 Bitcoin, up 6% from August. Marathon did not sell any of its Bitcoin holdings, which currently stand at 26,842 BTC. “In September, the strength of our globally diversified operations was demonstrated as we achieved significant uptime and increased our energized hashrate to 36.9 EH/s, up 5% from August,” said Fred Thiel, Chairman and CEO of MARA. “We are proud to have surpassed a large Bitcoin stockpile in September and now have almost 27,000 BTC on our balance sheet.”
- Riot Platforms (RIOT): Riot mined 412 BTC in September, up 28% from the previous month and bringing its total holdings to 10,427 BTC. CEO Jason Les attributed the growth to operational improvements and hash rate growth, citing the completion of the third 100 MW building at the Corsicana Facility.
- CleanSpark (CLSK): CleanSpark mined 493 BTC in September, bringing its total assets to 8,049 BTC. CEO Zach Bradford highlighted the company’s strategic positioning and resilience, noting that the company’s stock price had increased 145% year-over-year through the end of the month. “These results were achieved by successfully navigating the halving, completing multiple acquisitions, delivering significant organic growth, and even weathering a storm to close out the year,” Bradford said.
*This is not investment advice.