Mining Firm Hut 8 Reports 28% Drop in Q2 Revenue Following Bitcoin Halving

Canadian bitcoin miner Hut 8 announced its Q2 2020 earnings Thursday, reporting a sharp drop in revenue. However, the rising value of the firm's bitcoin holdings helped Hut 8 finish the quarter in the black.

The publicly traded company mined 795 bitcoin BTC$66,963.42 last quarter, a 29% decrease from the 1,116 BTC mined during the prior quarter. As a result, revenue declined 28% to C$9.2 million (US$7 million).

Management mainly attributed this to the bitcoin halving that took place on May 11, writing:

“The network difficulty decreased subsequent to the halving by 15%, but quickly returned back to levels prior to the halving. This posed a difficult challenge to many bitcoin miners as they saw the bitcoin block reward drop by 50% with similar network difficulty rates meaning that revenue dropped by nearly 50% for all bitcoin miners, including Hut 8.”

Despite a C$6.4 million gross loss for Q2, Hut 8 reported C$2.8 million in net income – thanks to a C$9.4 million gain on the re-measurement of its bitcoin holdings. Hut 8 has 2,954 BTC on its balance sheet as of the end of Q2 2020.

The company also noted it had successfully raised C$8.3 million in gross proceeds from its public offering, which closed near the end of the quarter. According to management, the additional capital has already been committed to upgrading its existing mining equipment.

“This upgrade is a big step towards modernizing Hut 8’s equipment and increasing the overall efficiency of its bitcoin mining fleet,” the company said in a statement.

As of press time, Hut 8 shares have declined 2% following the earnings release.