Iris Energy’s December Hashrate Rises 14% as Revenue Falls Again

Nasdaq-listed Iris Energy’s (IREN) average hashrate was up 14% month on month in December 2021 while operating revenue fell 6.4%, the company in a Tuesday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The miner’s computing power on the bitcoin network reached 748 petahash/second (PH/s), compared with 657 PH/s in November. The Australian firm attributed the increase to the installation of 1,666 rigs of the Bitmain Antminer S19j Pro that replaced older machines in its Canal Flats, British Columbia site.Iris Energy mined 124 bitcoin in December compared to 113 bitcoin in November.During the same period, operating revenue in U.S. dollars fell 6.4% to $6.2 million as revenue per bitcoin mined plunged to 14.8% and cost of electricity per bitcoin mined increased by 4.6%. The company attributed the revenue drop to losses in the price of bitcoin and increased difficulty in mining.Iris Energy saw a 10% drop in revenue in November.As of writing, shares of Iris Energy were up 0.81% in pre-market trading.Two new sites in British Columbia will bring in a combined 3.9 exahash/s (EH/s) when operational, Iris Energy said. One site in Mackenzie will deliver 1.5 EH/s in 2022, with the first 0.3 EH/s expected Q2 2022, and another in Prince George will deliver 1.4 EH/s in Q3 2022, expanding to 2.4 EH/s sometime in 2023, according to the statement.In addition to these two mines, Iris Energy is developing sites that will bring in 10.6 EH/s when completed, it said. The miner and is expecting 138,574 Antminers to ship by Q3 2023, the filing said.The company claims its crypto mining operations are “100% renewable since inception” because they use 98% renewable energy and the rest is made up for by the purchase of Renewable Energy Certificates.

Read more: Bitcoin Miner Iris Energy’s Monthly Revenue Fell 10% in November on Higher Difficulty