Riot Blockchain Bitcoin production jumps 80% over pre-halving levels

The company said it held more than $94 million in crypto as of March 31, all from Bitcoin it has mined.

In an announcement today, Riot reported that it had produced 187 Bitcoin (BTC) — roughly $11.2 million — last month, an 80% increase over its BTC mining in March of last year. The company said it held more than 1,565 Bitcoin on its balance sheet as of March 31, more than $94 million in crypto.

The mining report follows Riot’s $138 million purchase of 42,000 S19j Antminers from crypto mining giant Bitmain. Roughly 6% of the rigs — 2,400 Antminers — are reportedly already on route to Coinmint’s facility in New York, where Riot runs a portion of its mining operations. By the end of April, Riot claims it will have 16,146 Antminers in operation capable of producing 1.6 exahashes per second, or EH/s.

As more of the Antminers are put into operation, Riot expects its hashing power to rise significantly. By the end of this year, the mining firm expects to achieve a hash rate capacity of 3.8 EH/s, while the total fleet capacity of 81,146 Antminers — expected to be fully operational before the fourth quarter of 2022 — may produce a hash rate of 7.7 EH/s. According to blockchain data, this would represent more than 4% of the hashrate for the entire Bitcoin network, roughly 171 million terahashes per second at the time of publication.

Riot is also reportedly planning to purchase a major mining facility in the state of Texas. The mining firm said last week that it would buy the Northern Data-owned Whinstone company for $650 million. The deal would seemingly allow Riot to run its rigs in Texas with a total capacity of 750 megawatts, with an additional 300 MW expansion planned.