Summary CleanSpark's operational efficiency and hashrate growth make it one of the most competitive and profitable bitcoin miners in the U.S. market. The company balances HODLing and selling bitcoin to fund expansion, using innovative treasury strategies like lending and covered calls to enhance returns. Key risks include bitcoin price volatility and not fully participating in potential bull market gains by selling some mined bitcoin for operations. CleanSpark ( CLSK ) recently saw a nice appreciation in its stock price over the past couple months from the April lows. CleanSpark, who proclaims to be "America's Bitcoin Miner", became primarily focused on bitcoin mining in 2020. Despite the company's fairly recent shift in focus, they have risen in the ranks to become one of the most competitive public bitcoin mining companies in the public market. As this article will show, despite not holding as much bitcoin as companies like MARA Holdings ( MARA ), their performance metrics seem to be improving more quickly than others. CleanSpark's Monthly Update On June 3, CleanSpark released its most recent update for the month of May where they showed impressive growth over the month, HODLing 12,502 bitcoin compared to 12,100 a month earlier. Although they HODL'd over 400 more bitcoin month-over-month, they mined a total of 694 bitcoin in May, selling some bitcoin to fund operations. They reached a total bitcoin hashrate of 47 Eh/s and plan on reaching 50 Eh/s in the month of June. This is an impressive feat considering MARA Holdings, a company that is nearly a decade older than CleanSpark, has amassed an only slightly larger hashrate of 58.3 Eh/s as of their May 2025 report. I recommended CleanSpark as a strong buy in my article on February 17, 2025 with the price trading just above $10/share. My recommendation was mostly based upon the mining efficiency of their fleet, which has led to them stacking bitcoin faster with more profitable operations. Since February 17, bitcoin has been volatile, but today, CleanSpark's stock trades near $10 once again. Has it bottomed and begun an upward rise alongside the potential bitcoin bull market? Time will tell. Company Overview American Made Bitcoin This chart shows the growth of the company's bitcoin mining from before the most recent halving to today. Even in the midst of the bitcoin halving, CleanSpark has continued to grow by mining more and more bitcoin, relative to the halving. Monthly Bitcoin Production ( CleanSpark 's May2025 Presentation) The company operates solely in America. This map shows the company's operations. Its largest footprint is found in the state of Georgia, where they first started their bitcoin mining journey with their first acquisition of ATL data centers. Bitcoin Mining Areas of Operation ( CleanSpark 's May2025 Presentation) CleanSpark's Mining Hashrate Through their growth in operations, they have more than doubled their mining hashrate each year, and they are on pace to do the same again in 2025. Here's the outlook from the CEO during the Q2 2025 Conference call. Looking beyond mid-year, we have active projects ongoing with miners and infrastructure paid for that will push us over 57 exahash. For long-term expansion, we have already secured infrastructure in hand or under contract to support growth beyond 60 exahash. Hashrate Growth Chart ( CleanSpark May2025 Presentation) Comparing CleanSpark's Hashrate Growth to MARA Holdings This is a graph comparing MARA Holding's hashrate over time. Although MARA Holdings began mining bitcoin in 2018, you can see how CLSK is on a trajectory that might overtake MARA. However, MARA has some exciting projects as well that will likely also continue to grow their hashrate quickly. MARA Holdings Hashrate Growth (Q1 2025 MARA Earnings Presentation) CleanSpark's Growth in Energy Efficiency This graphic shows CleanSpark's cost of mining bitcoin in terms of energy costs. Their average cost/kWh was $.06 cents in the most recent quarter. This was a substantial rise compared to the average cost/kWh of the previous two years. With energy costs bound to rise over time thanks to inflation, as well as bitcoin halvings reducing revenue, it is imperative for companies like CleanSpark to become ever more efficient. That is what they have accomplished by driving down the J/TH (Joules/TH) metric by over 40 percent since 2023 to 17.03 J/TH. CleanSpark's Operating Metrics ( CleanSpark May2025 Presentation) Because of CleanSpark's focus on efficiency, they were able to mine a bitcoin for the cost of $42,667 per bitcoin. With bitcoin trading above $100k per bitcoin, which creates an attractive operating margin for the company. With CleanSpark owning one of the most efficient fleets among public bitcoin mining companies, we can assume this is also one of the lowest costs among companies mining bitcoin. BTC Treasury Management As of April 30, 2025, CleanSpark's bitcoin treasury was valued at $1.13 billion. This is almost double the value that the company held in October 2024, just seven months prior. This was a combination of bitcoin's price appreciation and a nearly 40 percent increase in their bitcoin stack. Bitcoin Holdings Over Time ( CleanSpark May2025 Presentation) CleanSpark Performance Comparison Over Time As of January 2025 CleanSpark (This Article) June 7, 2025 CleanSpark ( Last Article ) Feb 17, 2025 All-In Power Costs 6.0c/kWh 4.6c/kWh Fleet Efficiency 16.71 J/Th 16.15 J/Th Average bitcoin Produced per Day 22.38 20.19 Bitcoin Held 12,502 10,556 Bitcoin Produced 05/2025 694 626 Fully Diluted Shares Outstanding(MM) 280.9 280.8 Total Deployed Hash Rate 45.6 EH/s 40.1 EH/s Market Cap($B) $2.75 $2.95 Quarterly Revenue($M) $181.7 $162.3 Debt-to-Asset Ratio Q3* .29 .27 New Financing Opportunities CleanSpark has begun to become more creative in generating additional revenue and financing from their bitcoin stack. First, they are increasing their Coinbase lending program to $200 million where they borrow using their bitcoin as collateral, which should provide a method for them to HODL greater amounts of their bitcoin. Here was the comment from Coinbase: Coinbase is excited to support CleanSpark and their innovative approach to capital and treasury management in Bitcoin mining," said Brett Tejpaul, Head of Coinbase Institutional. "By deepening our relationship with CleanSpark and offering institutional-grade lending and custody management through our Prime service offering, we're committed to delivering strategic solutions that help CleanSpark thrive in the evolving crypto landscape. Secondly, the company will begin to sell covered calls on some of their bitcoin. Since they have chosen to sell a portion of their bitcoin to finance operations, selling covered calls to capture the premium to spot price only makes sense. The CFO Mike Vermicelli describes the covered call premiums like this from their 2025 Q2 conference call. Bitcoin’s trading around, what, $101,000 right now. So if we were to issue covered calls at the money, so with a strike price of $101,000 one week out, that’s a premium of a little over $2,400 or 2.4%. Risks and Counterarguments Bitcoin's Price Risk One of the biggest risks for CleanSpark is the bitcoin price. This should be obvious to investors, in that if the bitcoin price declines, then CleanSpark's share price will decline as well. This will impact their revenue as well as their balance sheet. But if you believe in bitcoin, then you understand that bitcoin's volatility can work to your advantage if you are patient. Not HODLing All Their Bitcoin Given bitcoin's impressive growth and its potential future growth, a risk that may not be so obvious, is the risk of not HODLing all of the bitcoin that the company mines. This is not a risk in that the company could go down in value, but rather a risk that other companies that HODL all of their bitcoin will perform better. Although CleanSpark's strategy should make them more stable, other bitcoin miners such as MARA have embarked on a bitcoin policy of not selling any of their bitcoin. If in fact we are entering a bitcoin bull market, then the companies that use financial leverage in order to fund operations while not selling any bitcoin, will outperform. As I mentioned, CleanSpark has chosen to hold most of their bitcoin, but to sell some to fund their expansion plans and ongoing operations. If bitcoin were to double or triple in price during a potential bull market, CleanSpark will miss out on some of those relatively quick returns in exchange for reducing balance sheet risk from greater debt levels. Looking at this from another perspective, some investors may appreciate this strategy more than the full HODL strategy. By selling bitcoin to finance operations, it certainly incentivizes CleanSpark to continue being one of, if not the most, efficient bitcoin miners in the market. Acquiring bitcoin via debt and issuing shares could make a bitcoin mining company complacent with their operating performance. The Bitcoin Treasury Companies Another counterargument to CleanSpark and the bitcoin mining industry at large, is the idea that bitcoin treasury companies will outperform bitcoin mining companies. The logic is that bitcoin mining companies have to invest tremendous amounts of capital to acquire the same number of bitcoin per share as companies like MicroStrategy, or as it is now called, Str ategy ( MSTR ). Strategy has experienced so much success, that many everyday companies have begun to follow by adopting bitcoin onto their balance sheets. Although few have tried to copy Strategy by making their company's sole focus being a bitcoin treasury company, there have been several that have begun, such as the future Twenty One Capital company which is waiting to be merged with Cantor Equity Partners ( CEP ). Tariffs Tariffs that increase the cost of bitcoin mining equipment coming from China is another risk. This, no doubt, can have an impact on the company. However, the CEO, Zach Bradford, tried to spin this as a positive in the following statement: In fact, if tariffs persist, we may see opportunities to acquire smaller miners at attractive valuations, particularly those unable to afford next-generation hardware under the new cost structures. This is a clear example of how our infrastructure-first, counter-cyclical strategy continues to generate strategic advantages over peers. Conclusion CleanSpark, among bitcoin mining companies, is one of the better, if not the best, company. If you believe in bitcoin mining, then CleanSpark belongs in your portfolio. They have proven themselves to be driven by continuous improvement, which has positioned them as one of the most efficient bitcoin mining companies. Given that bitcoin is a scarce, finite commodity, a company can only thrive long-term by being focused on continuous improvement. Currently, I think capital markets still have a hunger for bitcoin that the bitcoin treasury companies are positioned to benefit from. With limited competition, treasury companies like Strategy will likely continue to outperform. But bitcoin mining companies should still perform very well. One day, when the market competition among bitcoin treasury companies becomes much tighter, I expect bitcoin mining companies will provide a greater source of alpha for investors. Like I said, I don't think that day is today, but I'm not sure when that will be. Investors who want to invest in bitcoin in the public markets must play their hand and let the chips fall. But if your bet is on bitcoin mining, then CleanSpark is a strong buy.
