(Bloomberg) — Core Scientific Inc., the Bitcoin miner that warned last month that it might seek bankruptcy protection, said its reserve of the digital token has dwindled to 62 coins as of October from more than 8,000 earlier this year.
The Austin, Texas-based firm has by far the largest Bitcoin mining operation in the US with more than 243,000 servers across several states in the country. Its operations contribute to nearly 10% of the current computing power for the entire Bitcoin network to secure the blockchain by validating transaction data.
Core Scientific sold 2,285 Bitcoin in October at an average price of $19,639 for total proceeds of about $44.8 million, according to an operational update. In addition to the 62 Bitcoin, valued at about $1.24 million at current prices, the company had about $32 million in cash.
Low Bitcoin prices, soaring energy costs and fierce competition among miners have battered Bitcoin miners who took out billions of loans to fund their expansions during the bull run starting from last November. Other miners, such as Argo Blockchain PLC and Iris Energy, are also struggling to repay debt. Core warned earlier it could run out of cash by year-end.
Shares of Core Scientific have fallen by about 98% this year. Bitcoin’s prices has slumped 55% since December.
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