Summary
- Riot Platforms said it achieved a return to profitability in Q3, significantly beating market expectations.
- It reported that the strong performance of the Bitcoin mining segment and a rise in Bitcoin prices drove improvements in profitability.
- It said business expansion is accelerating, including the start of a data center new development project.
U.S. Bitcoin (BTC) miner Riot Platforms reported a surprise profit in Q3. Rising Bitcoin prices and data center expansion drove results, and the stock rose 5% in pre-market trading.
On the 31st (local time), CoinDesk reported that Riot Platforms said it posted Q3 net income of 104.5 million dollars ($0.26 per share). This marks a turnaround from a 154.4 million dollar loss in the same period last year and far exceeded the market's expected loss of -$0.12 per share.
Revenue more than doubled year-on-year to 180.2 million dollars. The Bitcoin mining segment increased by 93 million dollars and led the results. Riot mined 1,406 bitcoins during the quarter, with an average mining cost of $46,324 per coin.
Bitcoin prices rose 6.4% during the quarter and higher mining equipment utilization improved profitability. The company reflected 133 million dollars in unrealized gains on Bitcoin, and as of the end of September held a total of 19,287 bitcoins (approximately 2.2 billion dollars). Of these, 3,300 are held as collateral.
It also said it has begun a new 112-megawatt development project at its Corsicana, Texas data center campus. Land acquisition and design are complete, and the project has entered the expansion phase.
Jason Les, Riot's Chief Executive Officer (CEO), said, "These results are an important milestone in Riot's transition from a large-scale Bitcoin miner to a diversified data center operator," and added, "We will leverage our owned land and power infrastructure to grow into a comprehensive digital infrastructure company."
Son Min
sonmin@bloomingbit.ioHello I’m Son Min, a journalist at BloomingBit
