Miners’ bitcoin production dipped in January amid energy curtailment

Winter storms contribute to month-over-month declines in BTC production as the bitcoin halving approaches

article-image

Artie Medvedev/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

The largest public bitcoin miners produced less bitcoin in January than they did the month previous, as winter storms spurred the segment’s firms to curtail energy usage.

Marathon Digital’s bitcoin production declined by 42% month over month — from 1,853 bitcoin (BTC) in December to 1,084 BTC in January.

Disruptions during the month included “weather-related curtailment and equipment failures that led to site outages,” Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel said in a statement. 

The company had an energized hash rate of 26.4 exahashes per second (EH/s), as of Jan. 31. But its average operational hash rate dropped 14% last month to 19.3 EH/s, Thiel noted Monday.

The company said it is eyeing hash rate improvement in the coming weeks, noting that Marathon has added 0.9 EH/s of capacity in the facility it recently bought in Granbury, Texas.

Read more: Marathon Digital to remove rival bitcoin miner Hut 8 from newly acquired sites

Core Scientific, which emerged from bankruptcy and re-listed on the Nasdaq last month, produced 1,027 BTC in January. That was down from 1,177 bitcoins the month before.

The company reduced power consumption at its data centers “on several occasions” in January, delivering 18,487 megawatt hours to local grid partners, according to the firm. 

“By supporting the grid in such a fashion, Core Scientific helps grid operators keep power flowing to their customers when temperatures rise and air conditioning use increases, and when temperatures drop and heating use increases,” the company said in a Monday news release. 

Riot Platforms’ bitcoin production dropped from 619 BTC in December to 520 BTC in January. 

CEO Jason Les attributed the decrease to an uptick in power demand amid “extreme cold” in Texas during the month.   

Riot’s curtailment efforts during the period of high demand generated $3.3 million in power and demand response credits, Les added — the equivalent to roughly 77 BTC, based on the average bitcoin price during the month.

Though Riot’s bitcoin production dropped in January, it sold just 40% of the BTC it generated, compared to about 95% the prior month. 

Les said Riot intends to retain a greater proportion of its bitcoin production in the near-term as the next bitcoin halving approaches. The halving, slated for April, is an event during which the per-block rewards for mining bitcoin will be reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. 

Read more: Bitcoin price tracking ahead of the past 2 halvings — now 3 months to go

CleanSpark, Cipher Mining and Bitfarms each saw bitcoin production declines of 20% in January. They generated 577 BTC, 371 BTC and 357 BTC, respectively. 

Like others, Canada-based Bitfarms attributed the decrease to grid stability programs that promote energy curtailment amid the month’s “powerful winter storms.” 

Cipher Mining CEO Tyer Page noted that “the colder weather and resulting elevated power prices in Texas incentivized curtailment from our power provider at Odessa.”

While Bitfarms sold all 357 of the bitcoins it produced, CleanSpark and Cipher Mining sold just 6.4 BTC and 34 BTC, respectively during the month.


Start your day with top crypto insights from David Canellis and Katherine Ross. Subscribe to the Empire newsletter.

Explore the growing intersection between crypto, macroeconomics, policy and finance with Ben Strack, Casey Wagner and Felix Jauvin. Subscribe to the Forward Guidance newsletter.

Get alpha directly in your inbox with the 0xResearch newsletter — market highlights, charts, degen trade ideas, governance updates, and more.

The Lightspeed newsletter is all things Solana, in your inbox, every day. Subscribe to daily Solana news from Jack Kubinec and Jeff Albus.

Tags

Upcoming Events

Salt Lake City, UT

MON - TUES, OCT. 7 - 8, 2024

Blockworks and Bankless in collaboration with buidlbox are excited to announce the second installment of the Permissionless Hackathon – taking place October 7-8 in Salt Lake City, Utah. We’ve partnered with buidlbox to bring together the brightest minds in crypto for […]

Salt Lake City, UT

WED - FRI, OCTOBER 9 - 11, 2024

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

4.png

Research

This months PPGC covered four main areas. Firstly, debriefing the progress and status of the mainnet implementation of the Ahmedabad hard fork. Secondly, a retrospective on the testnet phase of the Ahemdabad Hard Fork. Thirdly, an update on PIP-36 which involves replaying failed state syncs. Lastly, PIP-47 which pushes upgrades to the Polygon Protocol Council.

article-image

Institutions to test out the settlement of “digital assets and currencies” on a network that annually carries more than 5 billion financial messages

article-image

After Bitwise’s XRP ETF filing this week, one industry watcher notes: “Politics will determine whether this happens soon or in a few years”

article-image

Plus, a look back at some of the SEC’s biggest enforcement moves under Gurbir Grewal

article-image

The forward-looking financial system is being championed by several contributors to India’s UPI digital money system

article-image

Multiple teams are pursuing integration cross-chain and off-chain

article-image

An SEC spokesperson told Blockworks the Ripple judgment clashes with Supreme Court precedent and securities laws