Canadian crypto mining firm Bitfarms has sold roughly $62 million worth of Bitcoin in June, using the proceeds from the sale to reduce its debt.
In a Tuesday announcement, Bitfarms said it had sold 3,000 Bitcoin (BTC) in the last seven days, roughly 47% of the crypto mining firm’s roughly 6,349 BTC holdings. According to the company, it will use the funds from the BTC sales — $62 million — to “rebalance its indebtedness by reducing its BTC-backed credit facility with Galaxy Digital.” The sold crypto seemingly included 1,500 BTC Bitfarms used to reduce its credit facility from $100 million to $66 million in June, bringing its debt down to $38 million at the time of publication.
According to Bitfarms chief financial officer Jeff Lucas, the mining firm is “no longer HODLing” all the Bitcoin it produces daily — roughly 14 BTC — instead choosing to “take action to enhance liquidity and to de-leverage and strengthen” the company’s balance sheet. Bitfarms said it also closed a $37-million deal with NYDIG to finance equipment, bringing the firm’s liquidity to roughly $100 million.
“While we remain bullish on long-term BTC price appreciation, this strategic change enables us to focus on our top priorities of maintaining our world-class mining operations and continuing to grow our business in anticipation of improved mining economics,” said Lucas. “We believe that selling a portion of our BTC holdings and daily production as a source of liquidity is the best and least expensive method in the current market environment.”
Bitfarms held a reported 4,300 BTC as of January, worth roughly $177 million when the crypto asset was at a price of more than $41,000. Founder and CEO Emiliano Grodzki said at the time the company’s strategy was “to accumulate the most Bitcoin for the lowest cost and in the fastest amount of time.”
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The move from Bitfarms came amid extreme price volatility among major cryptocurrencies including BTC and Ether (ETH). On Saturday, the price of Bitcoin dropped under $18,000 for the first time since December 2020 but has since returned to more than $21,000 at the time of publication. The ETH price experienced a similar drop to under $1,000 on June 18 — an 18-month low — before rising to more than $1,200 on Tuesday.
Edmund
