CleanSpark Posts $378 Million Quarterly Net Loss as Shares Drop 9% Premarket

CleanSpark shares fell sharply in premarket trading after the US Bitcoin miner reported quarterly results that missed Wall Street estimates. A larger mark-to-market loss on its Bitcoin holdings weighed heavily on earnings.

CoinDesk reported on May 12 that CleanSpark shares sank more than 9.4% in premarket trading after the earnings release.

CleanSpark said it posted a net loss of $378.3 million for its fiscal second quarter ended March 31. That compared with a net loss of $138.8 million in the same period a year earlier.

Loss per share was $1.52, more than three times wider than the market expectation for a loss of 41 cents.

The company said a non-cash mark-to-market loss of about $224.1 million on Bitcoin was the main reason for the weaker results.

Revenue also declined.

Quarterly revenue came to $136.4 million, down about 25% from a year earlier. That was also below the market forecast of $154.3 million.

The recent deterioration in Bitcoin mining profitability has been weighing on the broader mining industry.

Based on Checkonchain's difficulty regression model, the average cost of mining one Bitcoin in mid-March was estimated at about $88,000. With Bitcoin currently trading near $80,000, many miners are under pressure on profitability.

CleanSpark said it is pursuing an expansion of its artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure business despite those conditions.

Chief Executive Officer Matt Schultz said the company is focused on commercializing infrastructure assets that can be used for AI and HPC.

Across the Bitcoin mining industry, companies have increasingly been shifting toward leasing computing infrastructure for AI data centers.

Still, the company said its financial position includes some positive factors.

The value of CleanSpark's Bitcoin holdings increased about 14% from a year earlier to $925.2 million. Cash totaled $260.3 million, total assets stood at $2.9 billion and long-term debt was about $1.8 billion.