Bit Digital, Inc. Announces Third Quarter of Fiscal Year 2023 Financial Results

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Nov 14, 2023, 08:00 ET

NEW YORK, Nov. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Bit Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq: BTBT) (the "Company"), a sustainable digital infrastructure platform for digital assets and artificial intelligence ("AI") headquartered in New York City, today announced its unaudited financial results for the Third Quarter ended September 30, 2023.

Financial Highlights for the Third Quarter 2023

Total revenue was $11.6 million for the Third Quarter of 2023. The majority of revenue was earned from our bitcoin mining business.
The Company had cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash of $22.1 million, and total liquidity (defined as cash equivalents and restricted cash, USDC, and the fair market value of digital assets) of approximately $72.9 million, as of September 30, 2023.
Total assets were $108.7 million as of September 30, 2023. Shareholders' equity amounted to $103.3 million as of September 30, 2023.
Adjusted EBITDA^[1]was $(2.9) million for the three-month period ended September 30, 2023.
Adjusted earnings (loss) per share^[2] was $(0.03) for the three-month period ended September 30, 2023.

Operational Highlights for the Third Quarter 2023

The Company earned 403.1 bitcoins during the quarter, a 27% increase from the prior quarter. Growth was primarily driven by a higher active hash rate and partially offset by an increase in network difficulty.
The Company paid approximately $0.060 per kilowatt hour to its hosting partners for electricity consumed during the quarter.
The average fleet efficiency for the active fleet was approximately 29.2 J/TH during the third quarter.
For the three months ended September 30, 2023, we earned 115.2 ETH in native staking and 24.1 ETH in liquid staking, respectively.
Treasury holdings of BTC and ETH were 820.8 and 13,783.4, with a fair market value of approximately $22.1 million and $23.0 million on September 30, 2023, respectively.
The BTC equivalent^[3] of our digital asset holdings as of September 30, 2023 (defined as if all ETH, sETH-H, LsETH, and USDC holdings were converted into BTC as of that date) was approximately 1,881.3 BTC, or approximately $50.7 million.

As of September 30, 2023, the Company had 46,852 bitcoin miners owned or operating (in Iceland) and 730 ETH miners, with an estimated maximum total hash rate of 3.7 EH/s and 0.3 TH/s, respectively.
The Company's active hash rate of its bitcoin mining fleet was approximately 1.19 EH/s as of September 30, 2023. Approximately 600 PH/s of miners went offline due to a power utility mandated maintenance outage began on September 26, 2023. Additionally, approximately 250 PH/s of miners went offline towards the end of the month following the conclusion of a hosting contract at one facility. The Company has relocated those miners to alternative hosting sites.
Approximately 99% of our fleet's run-rate electricity consumption was generated from carbon-free energy sources as of September 30, 2023. These figures are based on data provided by our hosts, publicly available sources, and internal estimates, demonstrating our commitment to sustainable practices in the digital asset mining industry.
The Company had approximately 13,594 ETH actively staked in native and liquid staking protocols as of September 30, 2023. Approximately 11,200 were natively staked and 2,394 ETH were deployed in liquid staking protocols as of that date.
As of September 2023, the Company had 113.4 BTC collateralized with Auros to support yield optimization strategies which Auros is undertaking on the Company's behalf. The collateralized BTC was returned to the Company in mid-October 2023.

Subsequent Events

In October 2023, the Company announced the launch of Bit Digital AI, a new business line that will provide specialized infrastructure to support generative artificial intelligence ("AI") workstreams. The Company has commenced Bit Digital AI operations by signing a binding term sheet with a customer to support their GPU-accelerated workloads. Under the agreement, Bit Digital will provide the customer with rental services for a minimum of 1,024 GPUs and a maximum of 4,096 GPUs. The total number of GPUs, contract length, and corresponding unit pricing will be determined upon signing the master service agreement. Concurrently, Bit Digital has agreed to purchase 1,056 NVIDIA HGX H100 GPUs and has funded the initial deposit for the purchase order. However, the Company opted to cancel this order in view of regulatory issues and successfully received a refund for the majority of the deposit in early November. In a strategic move, the Company has since secured an alternative arrangement to acquire 1,504 NVIDIA HGX H100 GPUs along with the necessary equipment. The GPUs are expected to be delivered to the Company by the end of 2023 and will be deployed at a Tier-3 data center.
In October 2023, Bit Digital finalized an agreement with Soluna Computing, Inc ("Soluna") for 4.4 megawatts of incremental hosting capacity at Project Sophie in Kentucky to power its miners for an initial contract term of twelve months.
In November 2023, Bit Digital finalized an agreement with Dory Creek, a subsidiary of Bitdeer Technologies Group, for 17.5 megawatts ("MW") of incremental hosting capacity to power its miners at a location in Texas. The initial term of the contract is one year, which shall be automatically renewed for another one year unless otherwise notified by the parties. Additionally, Bit Digital will have the first right for up to an additional 17.5 MW of capacity that may be brought online by the operator. Bit Digital will fill the capacity with miners from its existing fleet and with new miner purchases. Approximately 900 S19j Pro units from the Company's existing fleet have already been delivered to the facility and are actively hashing. The Company has purchased approximately 3,600 S19k Pro mining units that are expected to be delivered to the facility by late-November 2023. The remaining capacity will be filled with future miner purchase orders.

Management Commentary

"Total revenue increased by 28% sequentially during the third quarter of 2023, primarily driven by a 27% sequential increase in bitcoin production. Growth was enabled by an increase in active hash rate, with our ongoing miner deployment program leading us to achieving the milestone of an active hash rate above 2.0EH/s during the quarter for the first time in Company history. Our margins compressed during the quarter primarily due to a seasonal spike in electricity costs, which affected certain variable-rate contracts at hosting facilities in the U.S. We ended our contract with one hosting provider at the end of Q3. In October 2023, we expanded operations by adding new hosting locations in Kentucky and Texas, enhancing our geographic diversification domestically and reducing our exposure to seasonal trends in a single state. We will continue to look to execute the most cost-efficient hosting agreements as we scale our operations.

We anticipate material growth in active hash rate through the duration of 2023, though we now expect that our 3.5 EH/s target will be achieved during the first quarter of 2024. The extended timeline primarily results from our decision to stagger the timing of capital outlays, as we earmarked capital to be deployed to the launch of our new Bit Digital AI business in October 2023. Additionally, our growth cadence is contingent on our evaluation of new generation miners and the corresponding timeline for procuring and deploying those units. Our average fleet efficiency was approximately 29.2 J/Th for Q3 2023, and our objective is to materially improve the metric in preparation for the 'halving' scheduled for 2024.

Revenue from our ETH staking business nearly doubled once again during the quarter, growing 95% sequentially during Q3. We remain constructive on the long-term prospects for the Ethereum network and intend for this business to be a more material driver of long-term revenue. We continue to believe that our Bit Digital Flywheel model whereby ETH staking rewards can create a self-funding mechanism for our bitcoin mining operations is an effective treasury management strategy.

Subsequent to quarter-end we announced the launch of Bit Digital AI, a new business line that will provide specialized infrastructure to support generative artificial intelligence ("AI") workstreams. This represents an expansion from our core business into an industry with robust demand and growth expectations. Importantly, we were able to secure an anchor customer for this business without devoting incremental resources towards customer acquisition. This business line aims to provide a non-correlated income stream that will help the Company weather potential downturns in its core bitcoin mining and ETH staking businesses and is intended to enable the Company to be more financially flexible through the 2024 "halving". Revenue for the initial contract is expected to commence in January 2024, and we are confident that we can materially scale the business with the necessary financial resources."

About Bit Digital

Bit Digital, Inc. is a sustainable digital infrastructure platform for digital assets and artificial intelligence ("AI") headquartered in New York City. Our bitcoin mining operations are located in the US, Canada, and Iceland. The Company has also established a business line, Bit Digital AI, that offers specialized cloud-infrastructure services for artificial intelligence applications. For additional information, please contact [email protected] or visit our website at www.bit-digital.com.

Investor Notice

Investing in our securities involves a high degree of risk. Before making an investment decision, you should carefully consider the risks, uncertainties and forward-looking statements described under "Risk Factors" in Item 3.D of our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2022. If any material risk was to occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations would likely suffer. In that event, the value of our securities could decline and you could lose part or all of your investment. The risks and uncertainties we describe are not the only ones facing us. Additional risks not presently known to us or that we currently deem immaterial may also impair our business operations. In addition, our past financial performance may not be a reliable indicator of future performance, and historical trends should not be used to anticipate results in the future. Future changes in the network-wide mining difficulty rate or bitcoin hash rate may also materially affect the future performance of Bit Digital's production of bitcoin. Actual operating results will vary depending on many factors including network difficulty rate, total hash rate of the network, the operations of our facilities, the status of our miners, and other factors. See "Safe Harbor Statement" below.

Safe Harbor Statement

This press release may contain certain "forward-looking statements" relating to the business of Bit Digital, Inc., and its subsidiary companies. All statements, other than statements of historical fact included herein are "forward-looking statements." These forward-looking statements are often identified by the use of forward-looking terminology such as "believes," "expects," or similar expressions, involving known and unknown risks and uncertainties. Although the Company believes that the expectations reflected in these forward-looking statements are reasonable, they do involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties, and these expectations may prove to be incorrect. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements as a result of a variety of factors, including those discussed in the Company's periodic reports that are filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and available on its website at http://www.sec.gov. All forward-looking statements attributable to the Company or persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by these factors. Other than as required under the securities laws, the Company does not assume a duty to update these forward-looking statements.

[1] Adjusted EBITDA refers to earnings before interest expense, income tax expense and depreciation expense ("EBITDA") adjusted to eliminate the effects of certain non-cash and / or non-recurring items.

[2] Adjusted EPS is a financial measure defined as our EBITDA divided by our diluted weighted-average shares outstanding, adjusted with the EPS impact related to the adjustments made to EBITDA to derive Adjusted EBITDA.

[3] "BTC equivalent" is a hypothetical illustration of the value of our digital asset portfolio in bitcoin terms. BTC equivalent is defined as if all non-BTC digital assets, comprised of ETH, sETH-H, LsETH, and USDC, were converted into BTC as of September 30, 2023, and added to our existing BTC balance. Conversion values are found using the closing price on coinmarketcap.com.

SOURCE Bit Digital, Inc.