Core Scientific Sold More Bitcoin in July Than It Mined

Core Scientific (CORZ), one of the largest bitcoin miners by hashrate produced 1,221 bitcoins in July while selling 1,975 to pay for capital and growth expenses.

The miner received a total of $44 million, or $22,000 each, according to a statement published Friday. Core used the cash from the sale for capital investments related to increasing data center capacity and to pay Bitmain for the 100,000 mining rigs ordered in 2021.

Core said it has less than $10 million in payments remaining for the rigs, excluding shipping and customs charges. The company still holds 1,205 bitcoins and approximately $83 million in cash on its balance sheet.

“During the month of July, we continued to enhance liquidity, strengthen our balance sheet, streamline our organization and make further progress toward achieving our 2022 operating objectives,” CEO Mike Levitt said in the statement.

The sale comes after the miner offloaded 7,202 bitcoins in June to raise about $167 million. The company is not alone as bitcoin miners have started to sell their mined digital assets this year to pay for expenses during the bear market. Most recently, peer Riot Blockchain (RIOT) said it sold 275 bitcoins in July, generating $5.6 million.

Core expects to continue selling self-mined bitcoins to pay operating expenses, fund growth, retire debt and maintain liquidity.

The miner said it has about 195,000 mining rigs with total hashrate of about 19.3 exahash per second (EH/s), which it says is the largest mining capacity of “any listed company in North America.” Core’s operation is a blend of self mining and hosting for other miners.

The shares of the mining company are about 4% on Friday, outperforming some of the mining peers and the price of bitcoin.