Shares of CleanSpark, a Bitcoin mining company listed on Nasdaq, surged over 5% last Friday following a report of increased production for September. The firm concluded the month with a treasury of 13,011 BTC, marking year-over-year improvements in both output and efficiency.
The September figures indicate a 27% rise in production from the previous year, as CleanSpark mined 629 BTC and sold 445 BTC for approximately $48.7 million, averaging $109,568 per Bitcoin. The company noted that fleet efficiency had improved by 26% year-over-year, with an average operating hashrate of 45.6 EH/s for the month.
Since April, CleanSpark has consistently sold part of its monthly mining output as part of a strategy to achieve financial independence. The company has also launched an institutional Bitcoin trading desk to facilitate its sales. In a prior update from August, it was reported that CleanSpark generated $60.7 million from the sale of 533.5 BTC.
After announcing these results, CleanSpark’s shares rose by 5.28%, contributing to a more than 23% increase over the week, according to findings from Yahoo Finance.
Furthermore, a report from The Miner Mag indicated that the market capitalization of 15 major publicly-traded Bitcoin miners hit a record $58.1 billion in September, contrasting with $41.6 billion in August and significantly higher than the $19.9 billion noted in March.
New Challenges for Bitcoin Mining
Despite the interest from investors in publicly traded mining firms, the industry is encountering growing challenges from escalating energy prices and potential tariffs on imported mining equipment.
In August, it was revealed that some of CleanSpark’s mining rigs from 2024 may have been produced in China, which could result in tariff liabilities exceeding $185 million. Iris Energy, the top Bitcoin miner by market cap, is facing a separate tariff dispute of $100 million with the US Customs and Border Protection.
Additionally, Bitcoin mining difficulty reached record levels in September and October, requiring miners to increase their computational efforts and energy consumption to generate the same amount of Bitcoin.
