According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency mining company CleanSpark experienced a substantial increase in revenue and profitability during the December quarter, driven by reduced production costs and soaring Bitcoin (BTC) prices. In the first fiscal quarter of 2025, which concluded on December 31, CleanSpark reported a revenue of $162.3 million, marking a 120% increase compared to the previous year. The company's profits surged to $241.7 million, or $0.85 per share, up from $25.9 million a year earlier.
CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford attributed the company's success to continuous improvements in key industry metrics, including operating hashrate, fleet efficiency, marginal cost to mine, Bitcoin treasury, and portfolio uptime. The marginal cost to mine a single Bitcoin decreased by 6% to $34,000 per coin, while Bitcoin's average price surpassed $83,000 during the quarter, eventually exceeding $100,000 for the first time. CleanSpark added over 1,000 BTC to its corporate treasury, concluding the quarter with 10,556 BTC on its balance sheet.
The rising Bitcoin price in the fourth quarter of 2024 benefited miners significantly. Investment bank H.C. Wainwright & Co reported that miner revenues increased by 41% to $3.7 billion between October and December. The Bitcoin mining sector has become a major segment of the crypto industry, with public miners achieving a combined market capitalization of $50 billion in 2024. As of February 7, the 24 largest mining firms had a cumulative market capitalization of $48.1 billion.
Amid the bullish market, more miners have adopted a strategy similar to that of MicroStrategy, choosing to hold a larger portion of their mined Bitcoin on their balance sheets. Analysts Nico Smid and Cindy Geng noted in a January 7 report by Digital Mining Solutions and BitcoinMiningStock.io that a significant shift occurred in 2024, with many Bitcoin miners opting to retain more of their mined Bitcoin or refraining from selling altogether.
The growth of the Bitcoin mining industry has led asset manager Grayscale to introduce a new exchange-traded fund (ETF) that provides exposure to mining firms. On January 30, Grayscale launched its Bitcoin Miners ETF (MNRS), which tracks the performance of companies whose revenues are primarily derived from BTC mining or related hardware.