Riot Blockchain jumps after announcing an 80% increase in bitcoin production as the cryptocurrency pushes past $60,000

Riot Blockchain jumps after announcing an 80% increase in bitcoin production as the cryptocurrency pushes past $60,000

Riot Blockchain's stock jumped as much as 12% on Monday after the company announced an 80% increase in bitcoin mining production and the cryptocurrency briefly pushed past $60,000 per coin.

In a press release that came out early Monday morning, Riot Blockchain said that in March 2021, it produced 187 bitcoin. That's 80% more than the company's mining operations produced a year ago, before bitcoin's halving.

A bitcoin "halving" is when the reward for mining Bitcoin transactions is cut in half. The last halving occurred on May 11, 2020.

The 80% jump in bitcoin mining production despite a tough comparison from the pre-halving quarter is illustrative of Riot's continued push for mining dominance.

Riot produced 491 bitcoin in the first quarter of 2021, an increase of 75% over its pre-halving first quarter 2020 production of 281 BTC.

The bitcoin mining company now holds some 1,565 bitcoin on its balance sheet, worth roughly $94 million at current prices, according to data from the company.

The news of Riot's rising bitcoin production comes after the firm inked a deal to acquire the largest bitcoin mining facility in North America, Whinstone US, for roughly $650 million last week.

Riot also recently announced that it picked up an additional 42,000 S19j