TORONTO – Bitfarms Ltd. (NASDAQ: BITF/TSX: BITF), a global vertically integrated Bitcoin mining company, provided a Bitcoin (BTC) production and mining operations update for April 2023. In addition, earlier today Bitfarms announced it had regained compliance with the minimum bid price requirement of $1.00 per share under Nasdaq Listing Rule 5550(a)(2).
“As we announced last week, boosted by production increases from new installations in Rio Cuarto, Argentina, our operational hashrate reached 5.0 EH/s on April 27, 2023,” said Geoff Morphy, CEO of Bitfarms. “Importantly, our private power producer in Argentina is now fully permitted to provide up to 100 MW, and we are able to begin purchasing power under this agreement at prices expected to be below $0.03 per KWh. With the permitting milestone achieved, we are positioned to expand in Rio Cuarto with sourced power costs that should reduce our average cost of power and realize our growth target of 6.0 EH/s in 2023. Additionally, in April we entered into agreements to acquire 22 MW of hydro power capacity in Baie-Comeau, Quebec, subject to closing, that is expected to drive further growth and our renewable energy portfolio.”
Ben Gagnon, Chief Mining Officer of Bitfarms, said, “In April, BTC production declined 6% year-over-year, as a 52% increase in our hashrate was offset by a 61% increase in network difficulty and a 9-day shutdown in Rio Cuarto as we transitioned to a new substation. However, we continued to drive hashrate growth on a sequential month-over-month basis, as 4% growth in April increased our corporate hashrate to 5.0 EH/s at the end of the month. We also purchased an additional 650 PH/s of new Bitmain and MicroBT miners to fill out another 22 MW in the first warehouse, which is expected to increase our total hashrate a further 13% upon deployment in the coming months. With competitive pricing and high efficiency, we expect these new miners will improve corporate energy efficiencies measured by w/TH and reduce our overall operating costs/TH. Furthering our cost control initiatives, we also rolled out miner specific real-time energy tracking across all sites and a hardware diagnostics tool that should dramatically reduce repair times on new miner models.”
“For April 2023, we were cash flow positive from operations after scheduled interest and principal payments. Reflecting improved mining economics, as in March, we sold less BTC than we produced, which resulted in a net addition of 30 BTC to treasury in April, bringing the total at month end to 465 Bitcoin,” concluded Morphy.
Network difficulty increased another 4% in April and is up 38% year-to-date in 2023, while Bitcoin price is up roughly 77% in the same period, resulting in a 9% improvement in mining economics as measured by USD/TH.
Energy curtailment in Quebec continued to moderate in April, as warmer weather reduced the energy demand by local power grids. With the coming of the Spring bloom in Quebec, energy curtailment is expected to subside. The table below presents an overview of April 2023 performance metrics as compared to both March 2023 and April 2022.
Founded in 2017, Bitfarms is a global, publicly traded (NASDAQ/TSX: BITF) Bitcoin mining company. Bitfarms develops, owns, and operates vertically integrated mining farms with in-house management and company-owned electrical engineering, installation service, and multiple onsite technical repair centers. The Company’s proprietary data analytics system delivers best-in-class operational performance and uptime.
Bitfarms currently has 10 farms, which are located in four countries: Canada, the United States, Paraguay, and Argentina. Powered by predominantly environmentally friendly hydro-electric and long-term power contracts, Bitfarms is committed to using sustainable, locally based, and often underutilized energy infrastructure.
