🧊 Bitcoin Miners Struggle with Rising Difficulty in January

In January, most Bitcoin miners experienced a decline in monthly production as network difficulty continued to rise. For instance, Hut 8 saw a significant 27% drop in production, mining only 65 BTC in January compared to the previous month. MARA and Bitfarms also recorded drops of 12.5% and 4.7%, respectively.

However, Riot Platforms bucked the trend by achieving a 2.1% increase in Bitcoin production. This growth was largely driven by the launch of a new mining facility in Texas, which contributed to the deployment of a hash rate of 15.7 EH/s by the end of January.

The new facility is part of a large-scale 1 GW development for Bitcoin mining, designed to scale operations and improve production efficiency. Riot's CEO, Jason Les, noted that the company has seen strong results from newly deployed miners and immersion cooling systems, which have boosted their operational hash rate and utilization rates.

As for other miners, many have been preparing for rising network difficulty by upgrading their equipment and streamlining their operations. Despite the difficulties faced in January, Hut 8's CEO, Asher Genoot, mentioned that the company was nearing the completion of infrastructure upgrades, which are expected to enhance mining capacity in the coming weeks.

The overall Bitcoin network difficulty reached an all-time high of 110 T throughout January, reflecting a 27.8% increase since the halving event in April 2024. While mining difficulty saw a slight drop to 108 T in the last week of January, miners are still dealing with high hashrates, which reached around 832 EH/s.

This environment has led to some concerns over declining hashrates and fewer preorders for mining hardware, as the industry adapts to the challenges posed by increased competition and energy costs.

🧼 CleanSpark Q4

• CleanSpark reported $162.3m in Q4 2024 revenue, up 120% YoY, with a marginal mining cost of $34,000 per BTC. Net income increased YoY by 852%, reaching $246.8m compared to $25.9m in Q4 2023.

• CleanSpark held over 10,500 BTC in its treasury, all self-mined in the U.S., while maintaining a $50m BTC-backed line of credit.

• CEO Zach Bradford highlighted improvements in operating hashrate, fleet efficiency, and portfolio uptime, with fleet efficiency reaching 16.15 J/Th.

• Hashrate surpassed 40 EH/s in January, with plans to reach 50 EH/s in the first half of 2025 through expansion in Wyoming, Tennessee, and Georgia.

• The company acquired GRIID in October for $155m and closed a $650m zero-coupon convertible notes offering in December for debt repayment and expansion.

• Unlike rivals diversifying into AI data centers, CleanSpark remains a pure-play Bitcoin miner, arguing that mining infrastructure provides faster returns and cash flow.

⛏️ In The News

• Bitdeer acquired a 101 MW power project in Alberta, Canada for $21.7m, aiming to scale it to 1 GW and become the world’s first fully vertically integrated Bitcoin miner by 2026.

• Tether reported a record $13b profit in 2024 and increased its US Treasury holdings to $113b, while its market dominance slipped as competition from USDC grew.

• Coinbase exec Conor Grogan claims Satoshi Nakamoto may have been active on-chain as late as 2014, based on a pattern of Bitcoin addresses linked to the creator, potentially indicating interactions with the Canadian exchange CaVirtEx and a connection to significant early Bitcoin addresses.

📆 January Updates

🏃 MARA

• MARA won 218 blocks in January 2025, a 12% decrease MoM, with production dropping to 750 BTC, a 13% decrease from December, and increased BTC holdings to 45,659 BTC.

• Average daily BTC production was 24.2, down from 27.9 in December.

• Energized hashrate remained steady at 53.2 EH/s, with no new miners brought online in January.

• Transaction fees accounted for 1.6% of total rewards, down from 2.7% in December.

• Completed conversion of over 230 containers to immersion cooling at Wolf Hollow, Texas, improving uptime and hashrate efficiency without additional power usage.

• Nearing full conversion of Kearney, Nebraska site to S21 Pro miners, expected to enhance fleet efficiency..

• Focused on optimizing mining operations and expanding capacity, with an emphasis on near-net-zero cost energy solutions in 2025.

👮 Riot

• Riot produced 527 BTC in January 2025, reflecting a 2% increase MoM and a 1% increase YoY. The company’s BTC holdings increased to 18,221 BTC, marking a 3% increase MoM and a 138% increase YoY.

• The deployed hashrate reached 33.5 EH/s by the end of January, up 6% MoM and 171% YoY. The operational hashrate totaled 29.3 EH/s, an increase of 7% MoM and 238% YoY.

• Power credits totaled $3.2m, up 328% MoM, with total power credits at $3.6m, a 250% MoM increase.

• All-in power costs decreased across facilities: Rockdale at 3.3c/kWh (down 15% MoM), Corsicana at 3.7c/kWh (up 3% MoM), and Kentucky at 3.2c/kWh (down 31% MoM).

• Fleet efficiency improved, showing a 3% MoM decrease but a 22% YoY improvement.

• The Corsicana facility reached a deployed hashrate of 15.7 EH/s by the end of January, completing its commissioning.

• Riot is now evaluating the use of 600 MW of power at Corsicana for AI/HPC, halting the previously planned Bitcoin mining expansion. As a result, the company revised its 2025 hash rate growth projection from 46.7 EH/s to 38.4 EH/s.

🧑‍🔬 Core Scientific

• Core Scientific earned 256 BTC from self-mining in January, down from 291 BTC in December, and customer-hosted miners earned an estimated 17 BTC, slightly lower than the previous month.

• Self-mining operations ran at an 18.5 EH/s hashrate, while hosting contributed 1.0 EH/s, totaling 19.5 EH/s across approximately 161,000 miners.

• No BTC was sold in January, compared to 79 BTC sold in December for approximately $7.7m in proceeds.

• The company maintained an average self-mining fleet efficiency of 24.5 J/TH, with previous-generation miners re-deployed opportunistically.

• Core Scientific hosted around 7,000 customer-owned miners, representing 4% of the total miners operating in its data centers.

• The company reduced power consumption multiple times in January, delivering 48,236 megawatt hours back to local electrical grids.

🧼 CleanSpark

• In January 2025, CleanSpark mined a total of 626 BTC, bringing the YTD production to the same amount.

• CleanSpark's operating hashrate surpassed 40 EH/s, reaching 40.1 EH/s by the end of January, reflecting strong growth in its mining capacity.

• The company saw a significant MoM improvement in fleet efficiency, increasing by over 8% to 16.15 J/Th. This was achieved with an average hashrate of 34.76 EH/s and an average fleet efficiency of 17.37 J/Th throughout the month, resulting in an average of 20.19 Bitcoin mined daily, with a single-day high of 22.89 BTC.

• CleanSpark sold 22.47 BTC in January 2025, at an average price of approximately $100,412 per BTC.

• The company deployed a total of 217,272 miners by month-end, expanding its overall mining operations.

• A new 12 MW site in Twin City, Georgia is nearly fully online, contributing 0.7 EH/s to the operating hashrate, with the remaining 0.1 EH/s expected to come online shortly.

• In Cheyenne, Wyoming, CleanSpark continues progress on its advanced immersion environment and is on track for full deployment in Q1. The site will contribute 5 EH/s once completed and fully energized with S21 XP Immersion miners.

👁️ IREN

• IREN is on track to reach 50 EH/s in 5 months, with 29.0 EH/s in January 2025, up from 28.1 EH/s in December 2024.

• The company mined 521 BTC in January, with a revenue of $52.0m and a hardware profit of $39.2m, maintaining a 75% hardware profit margin.

• Electricity costs for Bitcoin mining were $12.9m, with an average cost of $24,683 per BTC. AI Cloud Services generated $0.8m in revenue, with a hardware profit margin of 96%.

• The company is progressing with a 1.4 GW Sweetwater Project and expanding the 750 MW Childress Project, with 400 MW under construction.

• IREN is focusing on multi-GW developments and grid-interconnection agreements for large power capacity sites.

• Revenue per BTC was $99,789, with a hardware profit margin of 75% for Bitcoin mining.

• The company is installing direct-to-chip liquid cooling for AI and HPC.

• There was a 6% increase in AI Cloud Services revenue, with higher electricity costs attributed to NVIDIA H200 commissioning.

• Strategic growth includes ongoing development for the Sweetwater and Childress projects and a multi-GW pipeline.

🧑‍🌾 Bitfarms

• Bitfarms' operational hashrate reached 15.2 EH/s in January 2025, marking a 19% increase month-over-month.

• 201 BTC earned in January 2025, a 5% decrease from December, with 42 BTC sold for $4.1m as part of regular treasury management.

• Increased treasury to 1,152 BTC, valued at $121.0m at a BTC price of $105,000, with BTC repurchased from Bitmain and transferred as collateral for derivatives.

• Energized two additional North American sites (Sharon, PA, and Baie-Comeau, QC) and continued miner deployments at Stronghold sites.

• Signed a binding LOI with HIVE for the sale of its 200 MW Yguazu site in Paraguay, expected to close in Q1 2025.

• Acquisition of Stronghold Digital Mining on track for Q1 2025 close, further expanding North American portfolio.

• Engaged ASG and WWT to develop HPC/AI business, evaluating data centers for conversion and launching accelerated sales strategies.

• Adjusted 2025 year-end energized capacity to 675 MW due to HPC integration delays and Yguazu sale.

• T21 miner underperformance led to revised H1 2025 guidance, reducing expected operational hashrate to 18 EH/s.

• LōD miner management software is now deployed across all data centers, driving improved operational efficiency and enabling energy trading and demand response.

🐝 HIVE

• In January 2025, HIVE mined 102 BTC, bringing its HODL portfolio to 2,657 BTC, valued at $271m. BTC holdings increased by 34% YoY but declined MoM as HIVE sold a portion of its BTC for capital investments.

• HIVE maintained an average mining capacity of 5.7 EH/s, with fleet efficiency at 22 J/TH, and achieved a peak BTC-only hashrate of 6 EH/s.

• The average daily production rate was 3.3 BTC, equating to 18 BTC per EH.

• HIVE acquired a 200 MW hydro-powered Bitcoin mining facility in Paraguay from Bitfarms, expected to boost global hashrate to 25 EH/s by September 2025.

• The cost to complete the Bitfarms site is estimated at $400,000 per MW, increasing total operational capacity to 430 MW by Q3 2025.

• HIVE appointed Lieutenant General (Ret.) John R. Evans Jr. to its Global Strategy Advisory Committee to support global expansion.

• The acquisition and expansion in Paraguay are expected to generate economic benefits for both HIVE and the local community, with a targeted fleet efficiency of 16.5 J/TH.

🛖 Hut 8

• Hut 8’s self-mining operations saw a decrease in deployed miners to 47.1K, producing 65 BTC in January compared to 89 BTC in December.

• BTC holdings in reserve increased slightly to 10,208 BTC from 10,171 BTC in December.

• In January 2025, Hut 8's total energy capacity under management remained at 665 MW, while total deployed miners decreased to 115.3K from 121.4K in December 2024.

• The company’s total hashrate under management fell to 12.7 EH/s, down from 13.2 EH/s in December 2024.

• The managed services division held 280 MW of energy capacity, with 85.7K deployed miners under management, contributing 9.4 EH/s of hashrate.

• The hosting segment’s deployed miners remained almost unchanged at 68.1K, maintaining a hashrate of 7.7 EH/s.

• Infrastructure upgrades for the initial fleet upgrade are nearing completion, with new miners expected to be delivered in the coming weeks.

• Data center construction at the Vega site in Texas is progressing rapidly, and the project is on track for energization in Q2 2025.

• Hut 8 is advancing its AI data center development and expanding its pipeline of opportunities.

🇨🇳 BitFuFu

• BitFuFu produced 83 BTC from self-mining and 200 BTC for cloud-mining customers in January, holding a total of 1,742 BTC as of January 31. No additional BTC purchases were made.

• Self-mining output dropped 25% from December due to the expiration of a hashrate purchase order and the reallocation of capacity to cloud-mining.

• Managed 20.2 EH/s total hashrate, with 3.1 EH/s from 27,970 self-owned miners and 17.1 EH/s from 107,384 cloud-mining and co-hosted units.

• 2,000 S21XP miners ordered in November are set to arrive in the U.S. and be energized in March, adding 0.54 EH/s, primarily for self-mining.

• Signed a letter of intent to acquire a 51 MW Bitcoin mining facility in Oklahoma, offering a low electricity cost of $0.03/kWh.

• Operates 424 MW of hosting capacity, including an 80 MW hydropower site in Ethiopia at $0.036/kWh and a 33 MW U.S. grid-powered site at $0.042/kWh. Plans to secure 1 GW of power capacity by 2026.

• Cloud-mining user base grew to 598,785 as of January 31, with continued strong demand from large-scale customers.

• Launched BitFuFuOS, a power scaling software with overclocking and underclocking modes, optimizing mining efficiency and boosting earnings by up to 20%.

⛓️ DMG

• DMG mined 31 BTC in January 2025, a slight decrease from 32 BTC in December.

• Increased hashrate to 1.75 EH/s, up from 1.68 EH/s in December, with a goal to reach 2.1 EH/s in the current quarter.

• BTC holdings grew to 431 BTC, up from 406 BTC in December.

• Focused on expanding hashrate with leading-edge hydro direct liquid cooling (DLC) technology, deploying the first megawatt of hydro miners.

• Exited January at 1.8 EH/s, expecting to energize the remaining five megawatts during the current quarter.