October was also a terrific month for bitcoin mining companies. Bitcoin’s price set new record highs. Bitcoin’s hashprice, a measure of revenue per unit of hashrate, notched its highest value since the halving in 2020 during October.

In short, everyone in Bitcoin had a great month except for bears. This article summarizes the performance of bitcoin mining companies compared to bitcoin’s performance over the past month.

Stock performance comparison

“Uptober” bore stellar gains for Hut 8 Mining and Marathon, both of which outperformed bitcoin. At month’s end, their stocks are up 332% and 374% year to date, respectively.

Bit Digital led the pack last month, but its shares finished October down 52% year to date. The company privately issued $80 million in shares and announced a purchase of 10,000 Antminers that is expected to raise their fleet by 1 EH/s.

Riot finished the month flat, down about 60% from its high in Q1. For the first time this year, Bitcoin’s YTD gains have steadily surpassed Riot’s. Joining Riot with mediocre performance last month were Bitfarms, Argo and Mawson. Canaan and Hive had great gains, but both were beaten by the big orange coin.

Public mining highlights

Here are some key highlights from top mining companies last month.

Marathon Digital is continuing to outperform the competition. Marathon mined 417.7 BTC during October 2021, increasing total bitcoin holdings to approximately 7,453. Marathon is chartering planes to ensure speedy delivery of ASICs in the face of global shipping constraints. Marathon reportedly finished selling bitcoin on Oct. 21st 2021, and are officially in HODL mode.

Riot Blockchain mined 464 bitcoins last month and ordered 9,000 S19j Pro miners to be delivered next year. This recent order raises Riot’s previously projected hashrate of 7.7 EH/s to 8.6 EH/s. Still, Riot continues to underperform its peers.

After coming off of a record quarter in Q3, Hive Blockchain announced that they had purchased 6,500 of the latest-generation Avalon bitcoin mining rigs from Canaan. Known for their ether mining operations, Hive also expressed an interest in exploring the NFT industry as an active investor.

In October, Bitfarms installed 2,869 Bitmain S19j Pro and 300 MicroBT M30S miners, achieving a company record 1.8 EH/s. This month Bitfarms increased its capacity by 13 MW and announced plans to build two new mining farms. The new facilities will add over 78 MW in power, bringing Bitfarms closer to its goal of 8 EH/s by the end of 2022

Bitcoin’s October rally has been fruitful. North American Bitcoin miners have an unquenchable thirst for ASICs coming from China. Rising Bitcoin miner revenue and stock issuances provide miners with the extra cash they need to slurp up the available ASICs and grow their power capacities.