Public Mining Companies Experience Production Decline of 6-12% in April Post-Halving

Public mining companies have reported decreases in Bitcoin production ranging from 6% to 12% for the month of April following the halving event. 

Major Bitcoin miners, including Bitfarms, Cipher, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Riot, and Terawulf, were all affected, according to a report from The Miner Mag. 

However, the report said that the robust Bitcoin fee market briefly mitigated the impact of the halving on these companies.

Public bitcoin mining companies such as Bitfarms, Cipher, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Riot, and Terawulf reported a production decline between 6 – 12% for April as the robust bitcoin fee market briefly hedged the halving’s impact. As Runes becomes less popular, it is expected…

— Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) May 7, 2024

Hut 8 Reports 36% Decline in BTC Production

Hut 8, one of the prominent Bitcoin mining companies in North America, has reported a significant decline in its proprietary production for the month of April. 

In their monthly update released on Monday, Hut 8 disclosed that they mined 148 BTC with their proprietary mining fleet during April, marking a 36% decrease compared to March. 

This decrease resulted in a realized hashrate of 3.44 EH/s, a considerable drop of 51% from Hut 8’s peak of 6.27 EH/s in December following the merger with USBTC.

While the halving event had its impact, Hut 8 attributed the decline in production primarily to the relocation of proprietary miners previously hosted in the Kearney and Granbury sites, which were purchased by Marathon in December. 

Marathon accelerated the process of vacating the tenants in February, leading to disruptions in Hut 8’s mining operations.

Hut 8’s CEO, Asher Genoot, stated in the release that the team successfully removed over 25,000 miners on 440 pallets in just eight days during April, aiming to minimize downtime within the company’s fleet. 

Furthermore, he shared that the relocated Kearney and Granbury miners have found a new home at the Salt Creek site in Texas, which became operational within a remarkable three-month period since breaking ground. 

The Salt Creek site boasts a power capacity of 63 megawatts.

Additionally, Hut 8 announced that its total self-mining, hosting, and managed power capacity expanded to over one gigawatt in April. 

This expansion was partially due to the energization of a 215-megawatt site in Ward County, Texas, on behalf of Ionic Digital. 

Ionic Digital emerged from the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case of Celsius, a significant development in Hut 8’s mining operations.

Bitcoin Miners Adjust Operations After Halving

Bitcoin miners, including Riot Platforms, have been adjusting their operations after the halving event on April 20, which reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, equivalent to approximately $180,600 at present

As reported, a notable outflow of Bitcoin from miners could be on the horizon in the months following the upcoming halving event.

In a recent note, Markus Thielen, the head of research at 10x Research, estimated that Bitcoin miners have the potential to liquidate approximately $5 billion worth of BTC after the halving.

Asset manager CoinShares analysis suggests that Riot, TeraWulf, and CleanSpark are among the best-positioned companies to weather the impending storm.