Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms reports wider losses in Q2, buys more Bitfarms shares

Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms booked wider losses in the second quarter of this year, as the impact of April’s bitcoin halving continues to take a toll.

Riot booked a net loss of $84.4 million in the second quarter of this year, compared to a net loss of $27.4 million in the same period last year, according to the firm’s latest quarterly report released Wednesday.

The miner’s total revenue dropped to $70 million in the second quarter from $76.7 million in the same period last year. “The decrease was primarily driven by a $9.7 million decrease in Engineering revenues offset by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin Mining revenue,” Riot said.

Riot also produced much less bitcoin in the quarter. The miner produced 844 bitcoin during the second quarter of this year, down 52% year-on-year, primarily due to the halving event in April and the “increases in network difficulty,” the report said.

Also in the second quarter, Riot “nearly doubled installed hash rate” with a total capacity of 22 EH/s at the end of June, Jason Les, CEO of Riot, said in a statement. Riot aims to achieve a total self-mining hash rate capacity of 36 EH/s by the end of this year.

Buying more Bitfarms shares

Meanwhile, Riot continues its attempt to take over rival Bitfarms as it purchased about 10.2 million more Bitfarms shares in July, a Wednesday filing shows. 

In May, Riot attempted to acquire Bitfarms for roughly $950 million. Riot Platforms’ CEO even criticized Bitfarms’ plans to block a takeover. In June, Bitfarms adopted its first “poison pill” to prevent a possible takeover and later upgraded the approach in July.

Shares of Riot on Nasdaq fell 1.74% at closing on Wednesday, while Bitfarms shares closed up 4.03%, according to Google Finance. Riot’s stock price has dropped by 33.87% year-to-date.