Public mining companies reported Bitcoin production declines of between 6% and 12% in April after halving. According to a report by The Miner Mag, all of Bitcoin’s major miners, including Bitfarms, Cipher, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, Riot and Terawulf, were affected by the drop in production.
However, the report indicated that the robust Bitcoin fee market briefly mitigated the halving impact on the companies’ operations.
Hut 8 reports 36% drop in BTC production
Hut 8, one of the leading Bitcoin mining companies in North America, reported a significant drop in its own production in April.
In its monthly update released Monday, Hut 8 revealed that it mined 148 BTC using its own mining fleet in April, a 36% drop compared to March.
The decline resulted in a realized hashrate of 3.44 EH/s, down 51% from Hut 8’s peak of 6.27 EH/s in December after the merger with USBTC.
Although halving had its impact, Hut 8 attributed the drop in production primarily to the relocation of its own excavators, which were previously hosted at the Kearney and Granbury facilities, and were purchased by Marathon in December.
Marathon accelerated the process of vacating tenants in February, leading to disruptions in Hut 8’s mining operations.
Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot stated in a release that the team managed to move more than 25,000 excavators on 440 pallets in just eight days in April, with the goal of minimizing downtime for the company’s fleet.
In addition, he reported that the relocated excavators from Kearney and Granbury have found a new home at the Salt Creek mine in Texas, which was up and running within three months of the start of work. The Salt Creek plant boasts a capacity of 63 megawatts.
In addition, Hut 8 announced that in April its total capacity for stand-alone mining, hosting and power management increased to more than one gigawatt. The expansion was due in part to powering a 215-megawatt facility in Ward County, Texas on behalf of Ionic Digital . Ionic Digital was formed after the Chapter 11 bankruptcy of Celsius, which represented a significant advance in Hut 8’s mining operations.
Adaptation to post-halving realities continues
Bitcoin miners, including Riot Platforms, are adjusting their operations after the halving that took place on April 20, which reduced mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, which is now equivalent to about $180,600
As we reported, there could be a significant outflow of Bitcoin from miners in the months following the upcoming halving.
In a recent note, Markus Thielen, head of research at 10x Research, estimated that Bitcoin miners have the potential to liquidate about $5 billion worth of BTC after halving.
CoinShares asset management analysis suggests that Riot, TeraWulf and CleanSpark are among the companies best positioned to weather the coming storm.
