British Columbia-based Bitcoin mining firm IREN's stock price is surging Monday ahead of the Bitcoin halving, and after the company said that it has fully funded its 2024 expansion plans that will more than double its computer fleet’s power to yield new units of the leading digital currency.
In an investor update on Monday, the company confirmed that its current mining capacity of 8 exahashes per second (EH/s) would rise to 20 EH/s over the next nine months. Its data center capacity, which powers both Bitcoin mining and AI cloud services, will also more than double from 220 megawatts (200 MW) to 460 MW this year.
Following the announcement, shares for IREN rose 19% on Monday to a current price of $6.42 per share, and briefly rose over $6.50 apiece—the highest price since February. The rise bucked a trend of sliding crypto stock prices across the board, including rival miner Cleanspark (-9.8%), crypto exchange Coinbase (-2.7%) and MicroStrategy (-4.3%).
The latter three stocks have performed exceptionally alongside Bitcoin (BTC) since the start of the year, enjoying an influx of capital spurred by the launch of Bitcoin spot ETFs in January. While the same cannot be said for most Bitcoin miners, IREN and most industry firms began to rebound last month, reclaiming their market position as a higher-volatility BTC investment play.
Bitcoin Price Slips Below $70,000 as Volatility Spikes Ahead of April Halving
The price of Bitcoin slipped below $70,000 early Monday morning, as volatility increased ahead of this month's much-anticipated block reward halving. Bitcoin is currently down 1.1% on the day, trading at around $69,565, per data from CoinGecko, though it remains up almost 4% on the week. With the Bitcoin halving set to take place on or around April 20, one measure for tracking the cryptocurrency's volatility has jumped in recent days. Bitcoin's 30-day annualized realized volatility hit a high of...
Over the past three months, headwinds for miners have been twofold: On one hand, many firms no longer need to use mining stocks as a proxy for BTC with ETFs now available. On the other, the upcoming Bitcoin “halving”—expected on April 20—will cut the BTC reward for mining a block in half, threatening to wipe out miners who currently operate on thin margins.
Expert analysis has shown that most publicly traded miners—including IREN—aren’t in that camp, as they are able to produce their average coin far more cheaply than smaller competitors. Monday’s update also showed that the firm holds $300 million in cash with no debt, providing a cushion in case of market turbulence over the next several months.
Most Public Bitcoin Mining Firms Will Survive the Halving: Analysis
Experts say that Bitcoin’s massive price surge—interrupted, for the moment, by a deep dip—has paved a safe path forward for Bitcoin mining companies post-halving. Back in January, Cantor Fitzgerald estimated the average “all-in” cost to mine one coin for several publicly traded Bitcoin mining firms after the halving in April, which will cut miner revenues in half in BTC terms. Bitcoin traded for $40,000 at the time, leaving just two of 13 firms in the profit zone. At today’s price of $67,000, ho...
At full 20 EH/s capacity, IREN expects to generate $269 million of annualized hardware profit. According to Yahoo Finance, the firm’s market cap is currently $672.5 million.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
