Riot Blockchain Made $9.5 Million In Credits By Shutting Down Bitcoin Mining Amidst Texas Heat Wave

Riot Blockchain earned a stunning $9.5 million in credits in the month of July – all for just shutting down its mining rigs at its Texas facility while the region faced a historic heat wave and energy was at a premium.

The value of the credit they are going to receive is about that of 439 bitcoin, Bloomberg reported this week. Riot also mined 318 coins during the month, the report says. The credits can be used against the company’s power usage in the future.

Riot sports a 750 megawatt facility in Texas and is currently in the midst of building another 1 gigawatt site in the same state. In Texas, almost all bitcoin miners were forced to shut down their rigs as crushing heat hit the state in early July. 

The heat wave caused electricity prices to spike and made most bitcoin mining operations unprofitable. 

Recall, we wrote in early summer about how some public oil companies were joining forces with bitcoin miners to help re-shape the industry. 

One of the world’s largest industries – oil and gas – is converging with magic internet money infrastructure, we noted – but bitcoin’s prolonged market selloff has taken some of the shine off of these monumental partnerships. Some cryptocurrency traders are even facetiously asking if energy will be a new bullish narrative for Bitcoin, bringing wind to fill its metaphorical sails as the leading cryptocurrency sits over 50% below its record price highs from late 2021.

Jokes aside, the “energy narrative” for bitcoin mining is real and gaining momentum as a growing list of mining companies and energy producers join forces. Assessing the short-term price implications of these partnerships are well outside the scope of this article, but the long-term benefits for bitcoin mining as an industry and the broader bitcoin economy are enormous.

Our article from May overviews the partnerships that are leading the merge between bitcoin mining and oil companies, and it offers some summary analysis into the specifics of why these corporate unions matter.