CleanSpark’s Bitcoin production fell nearly 11% in September, and the company is ending monthly mining updates as it directs more capital and management attention toward an AI-focused data center project in Georgia.
The miner produced 529 BTC during September, compared with 593 BTC in August, according to CleanSpark’s monthly operations update. Its Bitcoin balance also declined to 13,530 BTC from 13,703 BTC a month earlier after the company sold 702 BTC, including 700 BTC delivered through call-option exercises.
CleanSpark said the option-related sales were completed at an average price of $72,928 per Bitcoin, while 2 BTC were sold through spot-market transactions. The company’s decision to sell a substantial portion of its monthly output and reduce its holdings comes alongside a far larger financing effort outside its core mining business.
The company said it will replace monthly operating reports with quarterly updates. CleanSpark linked the reporting change to the expansion of its AI data center operations at its Sandersville, Georgia, campus, where it is developing capacity intended for high-performance computing customers.
CleanSpark funds Georgia data center buildout
CleanSpark last week closed a $2.276 billion senior secured note offering to finance construction at the Sandersville site. The company has projected that the development could generate about $6.6 billion in revenue, though the scale and timing of that revenue will depend on construction progress, customer contracts and the eventual use of the facility.
The financing places CleanSpark among a growing set of listed mining companies seeking to adapt existing power infrastructure, land and data center expertise for AI and high-performance computing workloads. Bitcoin mining remains central to CleanSpark’s operations, but the planned Sandersville expansion would give the company another potential source of revenue beyond block rewards and Bitcoin sales.
That diversification effort arrives as mining economics remain demanding. Bitcoin’s network difficulty, the measure that adjusts roughly every two weeks to keep block production on schedule, reached 132.72 trillion in the first week of October, according to Bitcoin protocol data cited in the supplied material. Rising difficulty means miners must deploy more computing power and electricity to earn the same share of newly issued Bitcoin.
Bitcoin hashrate, an estimate of the computing power securing the network, also recovered above 1.07 zettahashes per second by October 13 after a brief decline, according to the supplied data. The rebound points to persistent competition among industrial operators even as individual miners face lower production from a fixed block-reward pool.
CleanSpark’s September decline followed a modest increase in August. The company’s 529 BTC output nonetheless remained far above the totals reported by smaller peers, underlining the operational scale it has built even as its reporting focus shifts toward a longer-term data center strategy.
BitFuFu faces Ethiopia site dispute
BitFuFu also reported lower total Bitcoin production in September, mining 167 BTC compared with 174 BTC in August. The 4% monthly drop masked a split between the company’s two principal revenue lines: self-mining production increased, while cloud-mining output fell sharply.
The company mined 98 BTC through its own operations, up more than 11% from 88 BTC in August. Cloud-mining production fell almost 20% to 69 BTC from 86 BTC. Cloud mining allows customers to rent a share of computing capacity rather than operate machines directly, making BitFuFu’s results dependent on both fleet performance and the allocation of machines across its business lines.
Despite the decline in monthly output, BitFuFu increased its Bitcoin holdings to 1,388 BTC at the end of September from 1,373 BTC a month earlier.
Its operational update also disclosed complications surrounding a proposed acquisition of an 80-megawatt mining site in Ethiopia. BitFuFu said disputes between the site operator and local electricity suppliers had affected the transaction. The company has invested $4.1 million in the proposed deal and deployed about 13,700 Bitmain Antminer S19 machines to the location.
BitFuFu said it is evaluating its options, including terminating the acquisition agreement and attempting to recover part of its investment. The disclosure illustrates a practical risk in the mining sector’s search for low-cost power: access to equipment and a signed transaction do not necessarily guarantee stable energy supply or control over a site’s operations.
The Ethiopia situation could carry consequences beyond the initial $4.1 million investment. If the dispute limits operations for an extended period, the company may need to relocate machines, renegotiate the deal or find other capacity for equipment already deployed at the site.
Canaan stabilizes after three-month slide
Canaan, a mining-machine manufacturer that also operates Bitcoin mining capacity, produced 44 BTC in September, unchanged from August. The flat result ended three consecutive months of declining monthly output, according to the company.
Canaan’s Bitcoin holdings increased modestly to 1,875 BTC from 1,868 BTC at the end of August. The company also highlighted an energy-reuse project in the Nordic region, where an 8-megawatt installation is now fully online and uses heat generated by computing equipment to supply roughly 2,800 homes.
The project converts waste heat from mining and other computing equipment into usable heating, an approach that can improve the economics of power-intensive infrastructure where local heat demand and energy systems support it. Canaan said it is developing a similar heat-recovery project in Canada.
The September production reports show different responses to the same mining backdrop. CleanSpark is financing a large data center buildout and reducing the frequency of its mining disclosures; BitFuFu is managing a site-level power dispute while balancing self-mining and cloud capacity; and Canaan is pairing mining operations with heat-reuse projects.
With network difficulty elevated and transaction-fee revenue remaining limited in the supplied market data, miners have fewer buffers when operating costs rise or machine availability slips. The next difficulty adjustment, expected around October 16, will offer a near-term indication of whether competitive pressure on Bitcoin production is continuing to intensify.
Want deeper insight into mining economics? Explore Bitcoin’s foundations with this concise guide on crypto mining and its real costs.
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