Hut 8 First-Quarter Revenue Drops 64% as Bitcoin Mining Difficulties Bite

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 Mining (HUT) first-quarter revenue dropped a greater-than-estimated 64% to C$19 million ($14.16 million) from the year earlier as the company was forced to turn off some machines due to a dispute with its energy provider.

Revenue fell 13% from the previous quarter, missing analyst expectations of C$21.2 million. The Toronto-based company reported earnings per share (EPS) of C$0.47 compared with forecasts for a loss of C$0.15 on FactSet.

While the crypto mining industry is starting to emerge from a brutal crypto winter that saw major names like Compute North and Core Scientific (CORZ) file for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Hut 8 had to turn off about 8,000 machines in its Ontario facility due to a dispute with its energy provider in mid-November. Since then, it has managed to bring only about 1,000 back online.

On top of that, its facility at Drumheller, Alberta is operating at just 15% capacity due to electrical problems that have damaged the equipment. The site likely accounts for about 0.9 EH/s of Hut 8’s total 2.6 EH/s of computing power.

Hut 8 stock was little changed in pre-market trading on the Nasdaq, down 0.55% at $1.82 at the time of writing. The shares have more than doubled in price in 2023, but remain lower by 34% on a year-over-year basis.

Hut 8 is in the process of a merging with U.S. Bitcoin Corp. (USBTC), a private miner with operations in New York and Texas.

Read more: Bitcoin Miners Are Starting to Emerge From Brutal Crypto Winter

CORRECTION (May 11, 12:16 UTC): Corrects per-share figures to Canadian dollars in second paragraph. An earlier version of this story had them in U.S. dollars.