[Huge Revenue Miss!] Tangent: Bitcoin Drops Below $57,000 Overnight, In Asia On Macro Fears — Riot’s Results A Drag, As Well…

Perfect storm a-comin’, for Riot when NASDAQ opens. Fear abounds in crypto as US fed decision day arrives.

Will update at 8:30 am Eastern, when Riot’s losses for Q1 ‘24 are disclosed.

Will be… It is flashing carnage -- a $9 something handle, at open.

Updated @ 8:30 am: Riot was expected to post revenues of around $93 million for the quarter; even BEFORE Halvening, it has only generated about $79 million in revenue. A huge miss. [More detail when the actual 10-Q is filed.]

And though it nominally showed net earnings, all of that plus more was due to a recent change in accounting methods -- one in which it is allowed to inflate "income" / reduce expenses in periods of rising Bitcoin prices, even when it is only a paper gain (Riot got zero proceeds from the Q1 increases); and it will show ballooning expenses, in periods when Bitcoin is declining. Like now.

If it were not allowed to count the paper gains, Riot would have had net losses of around $22 million.

What a train wreck. The entire value of the business is driven by whether Bitcoin can stay above about $50,000 in Q2. Thus far, it has fallen from a high of around $73,400 to $56,900 as I write this, in Q2. Losses will be shown in Q2 if this persists.

INSANE -- all while paying top executives ~$23 million in the quarter. Damn.

Out.

नमस्ते