Riot Blockchain reports increased revenue in Q3

Riot Blockchain reported an increase in revenue in the third quarter after mining 222 bitcoins during the three months

Publicly traded bitcoin mining company Riot Blockchain revealed an increase in revenues during the previous quarter. The company reported its July to September earnings yesterday.

According to its earnings report, Riot Blockchain generated $2.4 million in mining revenue during the third quarter of the year. This represents a 42% increase from the same period a year ago. The company’s increased hash power, combined with Bitcoin’s price rising by 15% during the third quarter, were the primary reasons behind Riot Blockchain’s increased revenue.

Although its mining capacity reduced quarter-on-quarter (QoQ), it increased on a year-on-year (YoY) basis. In the second quarter of 2020, Riot Blockchain mined 227 bitcoins. However, the number dropped to 222 bitcoins during the last quarter. Despite the quarterly decrease, the 222 bitcoins mined by the company is 41% higher than the same quarter last year.

Over the past year, the increase in Bitcoin mining capacity could be due to its decisions to focus on Bitcoin mining exclusively. Previously, Riot Blockchain also mined Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash in addition to Bitcoin.

Riot Blockchain has also increased its mining capacity over the past three months. Currently, the company’s mining capacity stands at 556 Peta hash per second (PH/s), which aligns with their expectations. The current hash power is 450% higher than the 101 PH/s they recorded during the third quarter of 2019.

Riot to expand mining operations

The company is planning to expand its mining operations. According to the earnings report, Riot is acquiring new Bitmain machines. Riot stated that “As previously disclosed, the Company has recently entered into four additional purchase agreements with Bitmain for the acquisition of 16,600 models (110 TH/s) S19-Pro Antminers for an aggregate purchase price of $37.2 million, payable in instalments. The company expects the delivery of the first 3,500 of these new miners in the fourth quarter of 2020, with the remaining 13,100 miners to be delivered in monthly instalments starting during the first half of 2021”.

Riot expects the incremental delivery and deployment of its new 16,600 machines through the end of the second quarter of next year.

Riot Blockchain and other mining companies have benefitted from the rally in the cryptocurrency market this year. Bitcoin is up by 114% so far this year, with the leading cryptocurrency now trading above the $15,000 mark.