From cointelegraph by Brayden Lindrea

Crypto mining company BIT Mining says its move to mine proof-of-work coins Dogecoin and Litecoin has been far more profitable than mining only Bitcoin.

BIT Mining, which previously only mined Bitcoin BTC$102,367, said on Dec. 4 that its expansion into Dogecoin DOGE$0.4406 and Litecoin LTC$140.94 “has proved to be nearly three times more profitable than mining BTC alone.”

The company said up until Nov. 27, it had mined 227,908,250.38 DOGE, worth $94.8 million and 84,485.42 LTC, worth $10.7 million. However, it didn’t state how much of the mined DOGE and LTC it had held onto, as both cryptocurrencies have continued to surge over the past month. 

BIT Mining only reported holding 22.6 BTC at the end of 2023, which is currently worth $2.2 million.

Source: BIT Mining

It did note that it was benefiting from DOGE’s price jumps in part fueled by Donald Trump’s win and Elon Musk’s promise to make a “Department of Government Efficiency,” or DOGE — an advisory position to Trump on government cost-cutting.

“Elon Musk’s influence and the changing regulatory landscape in the US after the Trump win has had a major impact on mining profitability,” said BIT Mining’s vice president and chief economist, Dr. Youwei Yang.

BIT Mining (BTCM) rallied 10% on the New York Stock Exchange to close Dec. 4 at $3.26, while most other Bitcoin miners rose between 3% and 7%, Google Finance data shows.

BTCM’s share price on Dec. 4, including a 2.15% increase in after-hours trading. Source: Google Finance

BIT Mining’s shares are down 37% year to date, continuing a decline in the stock price the company has suffered from since 2014.

The firm started its DOGE and LTC mining operations in May 2023 — two and a half years after it changed its name from 500.com and started mining Bitcoin, moving away from being an online sports lottery.

BIT Mining now has over 5,550 active machines that can mine DOGE, LTC and Bellscoin (BEL) and represent 1.32% of the total network hashrate for the three coins, making it one of the largest participants.

Diversifying from Bitcoin isn’t a foreign idea in the mining industry

Bitcoin mining heavyweight Marathon Digital revealed it started mining Kaspa KAS$0.1597 tokens last September, mining $16 million worth by June.

But, rival miners CleanSpark and TeraWulf told Cointelegraph that they only intend to continue to mine Bitcoin in the foreseeable future.

Related: Bitcoin miner Hut 8 argues to toss ‘short and distort’ shareholder suit

“We are not planning any diversification into other proof-of-work coins,” said CleanSpark senior vice president Harry Sudock, who added Bitcoin’s “long track record” means the company is more comfortable with mining it “for the long term.”

BIT Mining’s latest moves come as it recently admitted it authorized paying bribes to Japanese officials in an attempt to win a bid for a resort and casino license in its former life as 500.com between 2017 and 2019.

The firm agreed to $10 million worth of fines to the US government to resolve the charges on Nov. 18.