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BTC miners stocks: Which one would Warren Buffett pick?

By Daniela Ešnerová

11:15, 27 July 2022

A photo of a bitcoin (BTC) mining machine
Which publicly-listed BTC mining companies are in the best position to come out on top at the end of this market downturn, according to Arcane? – Photo: ShutterStock

Warren Buffett once famously called bitcoin ‘rat poison’ with ‘basically no value’, so he may not be rushing to buy BTC-linked stocks. But as some public BTC mining companies' valuations plummeted as much as 90% below their all-time highs, they could seem attractive to some value investors. 

While the ‘Sage of Omaha’ himself would probably go nowhere near the sector, he famously chose value stocks - shares in strong companies he felt had fallen low enough to represent good long-term value: could any bitcoin miners fit this description?

Bitcoin (BTC) miners are deep in a bear market. But as the embattled firms are having to fight an adverse market environment, are they looking like good value and could now be a good time to buy them? 

Jaran Mellerud, an analyst at Arcane Research, deep-dived into the publicly-listed miners' balance sheets and cash flows to pinpoint which ones are in the best position to come out on top at the end of this crypto market downturn. Which BTC miner stock is the bear market winner and which one is the bear market loser? 

BTC to US Dollar

Several factors contributed to bitcoin miners' current plight: the price of BTC is now 69% down from its all-time high lowering the block reward; it takes increasing amounts of energy to mine a bitcoin, while the energy is increasingly expensive. Moreover, higher interest rates and lower investor demand means higher cost of capital, Mellerud lists in his report Survival of the fittest: Which public bitcoin miners are the best prepared to survive the bear market?

He examined cash flows and balance sheets of these publicly-traded BTC miners: CleanSpark (CLSK); Stronghold Diginatal Mining (SDIG); Argo Blockchain (ARNgb); Riot Blockchain (RIOT); Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA); Hut 8 Mining Corp. (HUT), Bitfarms (BITF) and Core Scientific (CORZ).

Who came on top?

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Bear market winner: Argo Blockchain (ARNgb) 

“I believe that Argo Blockchain is currently the bitcoin miner in the best financial condition,” Mellerud concludes.

“Argo has a strong balance sheet with little debt and strong operating cash flows relative to upcoming machine payments. Argo also has the second-lowest direct bitcoin production cost.”

SOL/USD

218.19 Price
+0.400% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 2.2652

XRP/USD

0.72 Price
-2.590% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 0.01168

BTC/USD

91,627.85 Price
+3.040% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 106.00

ETH/USD

3,305.20 Price
+0.020% 1D Chg, %
Long position overnight fee -0.0616%
Short position overnight fee 0.0137%
Overnight fee time 22:00 (UTC)
Spread 6.00

Bear market loser: Marathon (MARA)

 

Marathon listed on Nasdaq in 2013. “The weakest miner based on this analysis is Marathon. Marathon has a strong balance sheet with loads of cash, but its massive upcoming machine payments will quickly drain its balance sheet,” Mellerud writes.

“Therefore, I believe the company will be forced to liquidate most of the bitcoin on their balance sheet or sell their machine orders to other miners.”

The rest of the pack

Which BTC miners have the lowest production costs and who has the strongest cash flow? Look at the winners and losers in individual categories:

Cash flow winners: Argo (ARNgb) and Core Scientific (CORZ)

Cash flow losers: Marathon (MARA) and Riot (RIOT)

Balance sheet strength winners: Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT)

Balance sheet strength losers: Stronghold (SDIG) Core Scientific (CORZ)

Markets in this article

BTC/USD
Bitcoin / USD
91627.85 USD
2686.5 +3.040%
ARBgb
Argo Blockchain plc
0.1105 USD
0.01 +11.170%
MARA
Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc
24.81 USD
-1.13 -4.490%
RIOT
Riot Blockchain, Inc.
14.08 USD
-0.63 -4.370%

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The difference between trading assets and CFDs
The main difference between CFD trading and trading assets, such as commodities and stocks, is that you don’t own the underlying asset when you trade on a CFD.
You can still benefit if the market moves in your favour, or make a loss if it moves against you. However, with traditional trading you enter a contract to exchange the legal ownership of the individual shares or the commodities for money, and you own this until you sell it again.
CFDs are leveraged products, which means that you only need to deposit a percentage of the full value of the CFD trade in order to open a position. But with traditional trading, you buy the assets for the full amount. In the UK, there is no stamp duty on CFD trading, but there is when you buy stocks, for example.
CFDs attract overnight costs to hold the trades (unless you use 1-1 leverage), which makes them more suited to short-term trading opportunities. Stocks and commodities are more normally bought and held for longer. You might also pay a broker commission or fees when buying and selling assets direct and you’d need somewhere to store them safely.
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