Bitfarms, a Canadian crypto mining company, has abandoned its hoarding strategy and is selling 3,000 bitcoins for $62 million in response to a recent market downturn that has reduced the profitability of miners.
The crypto mining exchange's share price dropped from $4.27 on April 12 to $1.83 at press time.
Jeff Lucas, the chief financial officer of Bitfarms, stated that despite the sale, the company remains confident on long-term price hikes and is focused on maintaining BTC liquidity.
Since January 2021, he added, the company has taken numerous financial strategies to support expansion and operations, but selling bitcoin is the cheapest way to increase liquidity on the present market.
The recent sale and $37 million in financing for new equipment contributed $100 million to the company's liquidity.
Bitfarms used a portion of the funds to lower its debt to Galaxy Digital LLC by $28 million, from $66 million to $37 million. The company mines approximately 14 bitcoins each day on average.
Mining corporations have had to reevaluate their operations and hoarding strategies in response to market volatility, with Toronto-based Bitfarms among the numerous mining giants whose cash inflow from stock markets is diminishing.
Riot Blockchain, one of the most prominent mining companies in Colorado, United States, has seen its stock price plummet from approximately $23 per share on March 28, 2022, to approximately $5.30 per share, while shares of Marathon Digital Holdings have reached a three-month low of $7.41 from approximately $31 in late March.
Bitfarms uses 99 percent renewable energy via a long-term power contract and is therefore less susceptible to energy prices eating into profits.
However, on June 16, 2022, mining revenue from newly created coins and transaction fees fell to an almost annual low of $14.4 million. The previous low revenue point was reached on June 27, 2021, with slightly over $13 million.
According to recent comments made by Charlie Schumacher of Marathon Digital to the Financial Times, smaller miners face the double threat of falling bitcoin prices and growing energy expenses. Consequently, some have canceled orders for new mining equipment.
While larger miners, such as Bitfarms, have set energy costs and, in the case of Bitfarms, 3,349 bitcoins on their balance sheet, smaller miners, such as Xive, were forced to cease operations when the price of bitcoin dropped below $25,000, according to the company's co-founder Didar Bekbaouov.
The data on Blockchain.com confirms the idea that the global mining hashrate is decreasing. The total processing power necessary to mine new bitcoins has decreased from 231.428 exahashes/second on June 12, 2022 to 206.4 EH/s at the time of writing.
