From theblock by James Hunt

Bitcoin  BTC -0.56% miner CleanSpark reportedrevenues of $162.3 million for the fourth quarter of 2024, up 120% year-over-year, at a marginal cost to mine of approximately $34,000 per bitcoin.

The company’s net income came in at $246.8 million in Q4, or $0.85 per basic share, compared to $25.9 million, or $0.14 per basic share, for the same period in 2023. Its adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or EBITDA — a popular measure of a company's financial performance — increased to $321.6 million from $69.1 million in the same period a year ago.

As of Dec. 31, 2024, CleanSpark's total assets were $2.8 billion, including $929.1 million in bitcoin, with total liabilities of $757.7 million, stockholders' equity of $2 billion and $1.2 billion in working capital, including a $50 million bitcoin collateralized line of credit.

"We continue to invest in ourselves because why buy bitcoin at current spot prices when we can mine it for $34,000?" CleanSpark CFO Gary Vecchiarelli said.

It marks a strong quarterly performance in the same year that Bitcoin ushered in its fourth halving event, reducing miners’ block subsidy rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, straining the industry’s revenues and seeing weaker mining operations exit the market.

"We overcame virtually all of the halving impact on the Bitcoin block subsidy while growing our current bitcoin treasury to over 10,500 — 100% of which was entirely self-mined by CleanSpark and exclusively in the USA,” Vecchiarelli said. “We have one of the cleanest balance sheets in the industry and look forward to utilizing it through our institutional grade bitcoin treasury team and strategy."

"This quarter we saw the impact of continuous improvements across what we believe to be the most important industry metrics: operating hashrate, fleet efficiency, marginal cost to mine, bitcoin treasury and portfolio uptime," CleanSpark CEO Zach Bradford said. "We exceeded 2024 guidance and surpassed 40 EH/s in January, while driving fleet efficiency down to 16.15 J/Th.”  

CleanSpark is on course to reach 50 EH/s in the first half of 2025 by expanding its operations in Wyoming, Tennessee, and Georgia. “Our regional expansion strategy was developed and refined in Georgia, and we are now replicating it nationally," Bradford added.

In October, CleanSpark completed the acquisition of fellow Bitcoin mining firm GRIID in a deal valued at $155 million. In December, CleanSpark also announced the closure of its $650 million zero-coupon convertible notes offering, used for repaying debt, capital expenditures and acquisitions.

"Our capital strategy continues to evolve, as demonstrated by the closing of our $650 million convertible bond with industry leading terms, and the conclusion of our at-the-market offering program," Vecchiarelli said.

CleanSpark shares are currently up 7.1% in pre-market trading on Friday following the report, according to TradingView.

Bitcoin, not AI

During an interview in September last year, Bradford correctly forecasted a meaningful push in bitcoin prices post-election through January, expecting that to result in significant margin expansion for well-placed miners with efficient cost structures.

He also predicted bitcoin to reach a peak of nearly $200,000 this cycle. “Based on my current analysis, I believe we could see bitcoin peak just under $200,000, sometime in the next 18 months. That’ll likely be a peak. But I do think we’ll see a rapid jump, and then hopefully, an extended elongated period of it being up before we revisit a bear cycle,” Bradford said at the time.

CleanSpark is one of the industry’s “pure-play” miners, preferring to focus on Bitcoin rather than diversify into the AI data center hosting opportunities explored by many of its rivals.

While AI-diversifying Bitcoin miner stocks like Core Scientific, IREN and Terawulf outperformed their pure-play rivals in 2024, it has not all been plain sailing, with AI-diversifiers among the worst-hit stocks following the DeepSeek-fueled market dislocation in January.

Bradford said bitcoin-focused operators are currently underrated as mining infrastructure pays back more quickly. Pure-play Bitcoin miners have lower capital expenditure costs and faster energization compared to a much longer gestation period for AI data centers, he argued, with “time to energization and cashflows” measured in weeks and not years. 

Although a bitcoin focus may be more volatile, Bradford said it was about timing the market effectively, highlighting CleanSpark's strategy of selling near peaks and accumulating mined bitcoin in downturns.