Hodl Resumes? Core Sold 27% of Mined Bitcoin in December

Core Scientific has liquidated 27% of the Bitcoin mined from its proprietary mining segment, signaling the company may resume at least a partial hodl strategy after two years of full liquidation.

The company reported on Monday that it mined 291 BTC in December, selling 79 BTC for proceeds totaling $7.7 million. Notably, Core Scientific has maintained zero Bitcoin holdings since it entered financial distress in November 2022. It continued its full liquidation strategy after exiting bankruptcy protection in early 2024. As of Q3 2024, Core reported no digital assets on its balance sheet.

However, in a seemingly quiet shift, the company began selling less than 100% of its monthly mined Bitcoin in November, marking the first time in two years that it did not liquidate all of its mined assets. As of the end of 2024, Core is estimated to hold approximately 254 BTC, valued at $26 million based on Bitcoin’s current price of $102,000.

Core’s decision to hold some of its mined Bitcoin aligns it with major public mining peers such as MARA, Riot, and CleanSpark, although Core is also diversifying its business by expanding into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) hosting.

Core’s realized Bitcoin hashrate continued to decline in December, falling to 15.44 EH/s, a 17% decrease from its 2024 peak of 18.64 EH/s before the halving.

This decline was partly attributed to a reduction in power usage, with the company reporting 30,985 MWh of electricity consumption delivered to local grids. Additionally, Core reduced its installed hashrate capacity to 19.1 EH/s as of the end of 2024.