Bitcoin Miner Revenues Drop 6% for Third Consecutive Month

Bitcoin miners experienced a third month of declining revenues, a trend that coincided with increased network difficulty and a surging hash rate, making operational conditions challenging

Publicly traded cryptocurrency miners experienced a third straight month of declining daily revenues in September, a trend that coincided with increased network difficulty and a surging hash rate, making operational conditions more challenging.

According to a report from JPMorgan, the Bitcoin network’s hash rate increased monthly over Q2, reaching 643 exahashes per second (EH/s) in September—a 2% rise from August. Despite the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization gaining about 7% in value during September, recovering much of its August slump, miners saw their earnings per EH/s drop by 6% month-over-month to an average of $42,100.

Source: Blockchain.com

This revenue decline occurred even as the total market capitalization of 14 U.S.-listed bitcoin miners tracked by JPMorgan rose 4% to $21 billion in September. Here’s a closer look at how some of the largest miners performed during the month.

Marathon mines 705 BTC amid 6% rise

Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) produced 705 bitcoins in September, marking a 6% increase from August. The company did not sell any of its bitcoin holdings, which now total 26,842 BTC. 

“In September, the strength of our globally diversified operations was evident as we achieved significant uptime and increased our energized hash rate to 36.9 EH/s, reflecting 5% growth from August,” said Fred Thiel, the chairman and CEO of MARA. “We are proud to have surpassed a marathon worth of bitcoin HODL in September and currently have almost 27,000 BTC on our balance sheet.”

Riot Platforms (RIOT) mined 412 BTC, a significant 28% increase from August, and now holds 10,427 BTC. CEO Jason Les attributed this growth to operational improvements and hash rate increases, citing the completion of its third 100 MW building at the Corsicana Facility.

CleanSpark (CLSK) mined 493 Bitcoin in September, raising its total reserves to 8,049 BTC. CEO Zach Bradford highlighted the company’s strong market position and adaptability. He noted the stock surged 145% compared to the same time last year. The company’s growth stemmed from managing the Bitcoin halving, completing several acquisitions, and achieving notable organic expansion. 

Miners Adjust Holdings and Strategies

Bitfarms (BITF) mined 217 BTC in the past month, marking a 7% drop compared to the previous month, attributed to increased network difficulty. During this period, the company sold 173 BTC but also managed to increase its treasury by 44 BTC. Currently, Bitfarms holds 1,147 BTC, valued at $73.4 million. Meanwhile, TeraWulf (WULF) produced 176 BTC with an average mining capacity of 8.2 EH/s. 

Core Scientific (CORZ) mined 345 bitcoins in September, slightly decreasing from the 358 mined in August. The company also sold 370 bitcoins during the same period. Meanwhile, Core Scientific’s team is actively working on customer-funded projects to enhance their data centers. These upgrades aim to provide almost 400 megawatts of infrastructure for high-performance computing. 

While overall production has grown for several miners, others took different approaches. Cipher Mining sold 923 BTC in September while mining just 155 BTC, indicating a strategic decision to liquidate holdings amid market conditions.

Miners Shift Toward AI and High-Performance Computing

Hut 8 produced 85 Bitcoin (BTC), increasing its total holdings to 9,106 BTC. The company strengthened its partnership with Bitmain Technologies and introduced a new GPU-as-a-service product. Despite falling revenues, Hut 8’s stock rose by 21%, signaling optimism in the market. The overall increase in hash rate also supported this positive outlook.

In the same period, Macquarie gave “outperform” ratings to MARA, Riot Platforms, Core Scientific, CleanSpark, and Cipher Mining. The firm highlighted a shift from crypto operations to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) models. Bernstein also noted that AI-driven Bitcoin miners are performing better as data center confidence grows despite Bitcoin’s volatility.

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is trading at $186, marking a 1.11% decline in the last 24 hours, according to the Brave New Coin’s Bitcoin Liquid Index.

Source: Bitcoin Liquid Index.