Iris Earns $11.5 Million from Bitcoin and Energy Sales

Iris, a bitcoin mining company, reported earnings of $11.5 million in August. The company mined 410 bitcoins and incurred an energy bill of $4.3 million. In the second quarter of financial 2023, Iris posted an operating loss of $8 million on sales of $13.8 million.

Powder keg

Iris leveraged the peak of the pandemic-era cryptocurrency and meme stock bubble in November 2021 to float at $28 a share, valuing the company at $1.5 billion. However, the company’s shares have since slumped 84% to $4.49 due to legal troubles with its counterparties and the collapse of bitcoin.

Despite the challenges, Mr. Roberts, the CEO of Iris, remains confident in the future of the business. He believes that a rebound in bitcoin’s value will stabilize the company.

Mr. Roberts stated, “Bitcoin is so tightly held it doesn’t take much of a demand catalyst to kick off parabolic bull runs. There’s the supply halving as a catalyst, an easing in monetary supply as a catalyst, and if an ETF is approved you get new buyers. It feels as though we’re sitting on a potential powder keg of demand.”

In other news, rival Texas-based bitcoin miner Riot Energy announced that it earned $31.7 million by selling power back to Texas’ grid operators.