HIVE Blockchain Technologies (HIVE), a publicly-listed crypto mining firm, has reported its yearly Bitcoin (BTC) production statistics, showing an increase of 18% to 4,752 BTC. However, the company underscores the growing difficulty of mining and declining profitability amid a prolonged cryptocurrency winter.

HIVE Blockchain Technologies Summarizes 2022 Mining Operations

According to the press release, HIVE produced 4,032 BTC last calendar year. Although the increase was described as "modest," the company points out that the mining difficulty over the past 12 months has jumped significantly by 46%. Thus, if the company had kept its mining potential unchanged, the amount of mined BTC would have fallen almost twice as much.

"Notwithstanding the foregoing, as HIVE's global fleet of ASIC and GPU miners expanded, HIVE's output of crypto mined with green energy, outpaced the Bitcoin Network Difficulty increase," the company commented in the press release.

In an effort to combat the increasing difficulty of mining, which along with falling BTC prices is significantly reducing profitability, HIVE is investing in new mining equipment. In 2022, the company acquired 3,570 Bitmain S19j Pro miners and 1,879 HIVE BuzzMiners.

In December, the miner's production potential reached 2.06 Exahash of BTC Hashrate.

December Figures from HIVE Blockchain

In addition to the figures for the entire year, HIVE Blockchain published separate stats for the month of December. In December 2022, the company produced 213.8 BTC, representing an average of 113.2 BTC per Exahash.

In addition, the company earned $3.15 million through its energy price hedging strategy. In terms of average BTC prices for December 2022, the income from balancing the energy network is comparable to mining approximately 184 Bitcoins.

HIVE has 2,348 BTC in its vault, currently valued at $38 million. Last quarter, the company sold some of its inventory to increase its cash reserve and fund some of its investments during the bear market.

"We have seen a great opportunity to expand in this depressed market, where ASIC prices are down almost 90%, whereas Bitcoin price is down approximately 70%," Frank Holmes, the Executive Chairman of HIVE, stated.

Another Company with Increased BTC Production

Last week, Bitcoin production data for 2022 was published by another publicly traded company, Bitfarms. For the entire of 2022, the number of BTC mined reached 5,167, growing 49.6% compared to the 3,453 reported for 2021.

Although the publicly-listed miner was able to increase its Bitcoin production significantly, the overall financials seemed to deteriorate in 2022. This problem affects the entire industry due to falling BTC prices and the increasing difficulty of mining.

The mining industry suffered from BTC's sharp price declines and revenues fell by 37.5% in 2022 to $9.55 billion. The number was $6 billion lower than in record-breaking 2021.

"There are more miners than ever now, some are even publicly listed companies, so there is less bounty for each miner since the pot size is limited," Doug Brooks, a Senior Advisor at XinFin Foundation, commented.