TeraWulf Mined More BTC in January Due to Reduced Power Costs

The US-based cryptocurrency miner TeraWulf produced 157 BTC in January, a 25.6% increase compared to December. 

Snow blizzards towards the end of 2022 crippled its operations and increased electricity bills. The weather normalized in January, hence the better production results.

Expansion Plans for 2023

TeraWulf boosted its mining activities with an increased number of machinery last month. It received 6,100 miners from Bitmain, bringing the total to 18,000. Additional 15,900 machines are expected to arrive by the end of Q1, 2023. 

As of the end of January, the organization had a hash rate capacity of approximately 2.0 EH/s at its Lake Mariner facility.

The power costs, another main reason for the increased production levels, dropped from $0.060/kWh to $0.052/kWh in January due to the more favorable weather condition. 

CEO Paul Prager said the company’s goal is to reach a hash rate capacity of 5.5 EH/s at the beginning of this spring:

“In 2023, our plan is to aggressively expand and efficiently operate our deployed hash rate as we install the remaining miners and ramp our facilities with the goal of reaching 5.5 EH/s of sustainable, low-cost operating capacity in early Q2 2023.”

TeraWulf’s shares reacted positively to the news, rising 8% in 24 hours. However, WULF tanked significantly at the start of February when the firm restructured its debt obligations to avoid further problems and eventual filing for bankruptcy protection.

The bear market has severely harmed multiple bitcoin mining companies, with Core Scientific among the examples. It filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection a few days before Christmas 2022. 

Marathon and Riot Also Performed Well

January was a good month for two of the leading BTC miners – Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain. The former produced 687 BTC, 45% more than in December. Nonetheless, it sold some of its holdings for the first time since October 2020 to cover operational expenses.

Despite that, Marathon remains one of the largest bitcoin holders with 11,418 BTC. The only entity with bigger exposure is MicroStrategy which has over 130,000 BTC.

Riot Blockchain mined 740 BTC in January, marking its monthly all-time high. It also used the price surge of the primary cryptocurrency during the first weeks of the year to sell 700 BTC for around $13.7 million. As of the end of January, the company held 6,978 BTC (nearly $162 million at current valuations).