Vancouver-based cryptocurrency mining firm Hive Blockchain Technologies Ltd. reported bigger losses in its latest quarterly earnings report published Tuesday, mainly due to Ethereum’s Merge and lower Bitcoin prices. 

See related article: Bitcoin mining difficulty dips 0.5% over two weeks after hitting record high

Fast facts

  • In the quarter that ended on Dec. 31, Hive booked a net loss of US$90 million, compared to a net income of US$51.2 million in the same period the year prior.
  • Hive said that this was the first quarter it didn’t mine Ether since last September’s Merge upgrade, when the network ditched the mining-based proof-of-work consensus mechanism and transitioned to a proof-of-stake model.
  • “Hive navigated this quarter by selling energy back to the grid, repurposing our GPUs to mine Bitcoin, and upgraded our fleet of ASICs to improve our overall efficiency,” Aydin Kilic, president and chief executive officer of Hive, said in the report.
  • Hive’s shares on the Nasdaq closed down 9.5% on Tuesday at US$3.05, a 67% drop from US$9.35 a year ago.

See related article: Bitcoin miner Greenidge Generation cuts NYDIG debt 78% to US$17 million