Riot Platforms (RIOT) shares rose 5% premarket after bitcoin The mining company unexpectedly recorded a profit in the third quarter on record turnover.
Net income was $104.5 million, or 26 cents per diluted share, compared with a loss of $154.4 million, or 54 cents, a year earlier. The company was expected to report a loss of 12 cents per share, according to Zacks Equity Research.
Revenue more than doubled to $180.2 million from the year-ago quarter, driven primarily by a $93 million increase in Bitcoin mining revenue, the company said. Riot mined 1,406 bitcoins during the quarter, at an average cost of $46,324 per coin.
The rise in revenue at Riot, one of the first mining companies to report, was primarily fueled by a bitcoin price that rose 6.4% during the quarter and greater operational capacity. The company recorded a $133 million mark-to-market gain on its bitcoin holdings, currently 19,287 BTC valued at approximately $2.2 billion as of September 30.
The Castle Rock, Colorado-based company, which develops and operates large-scale data centers, also announced the start of development of 112 megawatts of cores and shells at its Corsicana, Texas, data center campus following land acquisition and design completion.
CEO Jason Les said these developments mark a crucial step toward Riot’s transformation into a large-scale, multifaceted data center operator, leveraging its land and power assets.
Riot held 19,287 bitcoins – 3,300 are held as collateral – valued at approximately $2.2 billion as of September 30.
UPDATE (October 31, 09:50 UTC): Adds revenue generators, mark-to-market in fourth paragraph.
