Public US mining companies have amassed over $1 billion worth of Bitcoin.

The largest public mining companies in North America hold a total of more than 20 thousand BTCworth more than $1.1 billion. To finance the hodling strategy, they use borrowed funds or raise capital through the sale of shares of the company.

Several exchange-traded North American mining companies have collectively amassed over 20K BTC, worth over $1.1B at current prices.

Based on the latest published data, Riot,Marathon, Bitfarms, Hut 8, Greenidge, Argo and HIVE mined a total of 6,463 BTC in Q3, which was about 7.5% of all block subsidies paid during this period.

On average, the total volume produced in the third quarterBitcoin for Riot, Marathon, Bitfarms, Hut 8, Argo and HIVE were about 82% ahead of Q2 levels due to increased capacity and easing competition from Chinese miners.

Bitcoin mining quarterly volume

New York-based Greenidge went public in the third quarterthis year, and therefore disclosed information about production volumes and profits only for this quarter. BIT Digital, the only North American company that had mining capacity in China and was hit by the Chinese ban, has not yet released third-quarter numbers.

Cleanspark is a newcomer to the North American marketBitcoin mining, which appeared only this year. Apart from Cleanspark, BIT Digital and Greenidge, the remaining companies did not sell Bitcoin, adding all BTC mined year-to-date to their balance sheets and now own a total of 20,459 BTC, including the 4,812 BTC Marathon purchased on the secondary market earlier this year.

The number of bitcoins on the balance sheets of mining companies at the end of the quarters

Loans secured by bitcoins

Since these companies keep the mined forbitcoins have a fairly long life on their balance sheets, they need to have enough funds to pay bills, order new equipment and / or expand their capacity in the context of the infrastructure boom in North America. For these purposes, at least some of them attract borrowed capital.

For example, Argo Blockchain recently pledged partmined BTC to secure a $25 million loan from Galaxy Digital. Marathon recently secured a $100 million revolving credit facility from Silvergate Bank backed by BTC reserves and cash. Hut 8 borrowed $12 million from Digital Currency Group earlier this year to expand its equipment fleet.

This strategy is similar to the one usedChinese miners have been betting on BTC growth since early 2019. Thus, they also took the risk of forced liquidation of their collateral during extreme market volatility, such as in March 2020. A similar situation may arise for American miners if the cryptocurrency market falls sharply.

But in addition to loans, American miners this year also turned to the public market to increase working capital and finance expansion of production.

Last month, Hut 8 and Argo raised $150 million and $112 million in public offerings, respectively, and BIT Digital recently closed an $80 million private placement.

Earlier this year, Bitfarms raised $ 30 million inprivate placement for American institutions. And Cleanspark, listed on the Nasdaq exchange, received $ 200 million in a public offering when the company entered the bitcoin mining market.

 

 

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