Bitcoin Miner HIVE Reports A $236M Net Loss Amid Plunging BTC Prices

Canadian-based Bitcoin mining company, HIVE Blockchain Technologies Limited, has reported an around 50% decline in revenues for the 2023 financial year that ended on March 31. The revenues reported by the company during the period reached $106.3M, marking a massive drop from the record $211M reported during the previous financial year.

HIVE reports a $236M net loss

HIVE released its latest financial results, saying that the sharp drop in revenues was attributed to the decline in Bitcoin prices and the increasing mining difficulty for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

The HIVE blockchain miner company used application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners to produce 3,258 BTC during the 2023 fiscal year. The amount of mined BTC during the period was a 37% increase from the 2,368 BTC mined in the 2022 fiscal year.

Despite an increase in Bitcoin production, the HIVE blockchain mining company reported a net loss of $236.4 million, equivalent to a $2.85 loss per share. The figure was a massive drop from the net income of $79.6 million reported in 2022.

HIVE’s gross operating margin in 2023 came in at $50.4 million, which is a 69% drop from the $163.9M reported during the previous year. The amount indicated that the Bitcoin miner had retained 48% of its revenue from the 76% that was reported during the previous fiscal year.

“Gross operating margin is directly impacted by digital currency prices and network difficulties as this impacts revenue from mining operations. The decrease is mainly attributed to the decrease in Bitcoin price and an increase in the Bitcoin network difficulty versus the prior year, combined with the company not mining Ether since the merge on September 15, 2022,” HIVE said.

HIVE’s digital currency assets in 2023 also dropped significantly. As of March 31, 2023, the digital currency assets at the firm came in at $65.9 million. This figure was a massive drop from the $170M reported during the previous year.

Bitcoin makes a healthy recovery

Bitcoin has reported a healthy recovery in price in recent weeks. The price of the largest cryptocurrency currently stands at slightly above $30K, which is the highest value in several months.

The recent gains in BTC price have been attributed to the growing interest in the asset by institutional investors. The BlackRock asset management company has filed for a spot Bitcoin ETF. More filings by Fidelity, WisdomTree, and Invesco have followed.

Despite the mounting interest, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has continued to show its skepticism in the sector. The SEC recently sued top cryptocurrency exchanges, Binance and Coinbase. It also said that the recent ETF filings were inadequate, dimming the chances of approval.