American Bitcoin (ABTC), a publicly traded mining company co-founded by Donald Trump’s sons, has announced the successful energization of 11,298 application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) at its Drumheller site in Alberta, Canada. This recent acquisition increases the company’s total to approximately 89,242 ASICs, crucial machines that facilitate the mining of Bitcoin and other proof-of-work cryptocurrencies.
The company’s mining operations have now reached a computing power of about 28.1 exahashes per second (EH/s), maintaining an “average efficiency” of 16 joules per terahash. Following this announcement, ABTC’s shares experienced a notable surge, increasing by approximately 11.7% to around $1.38 per share, according to data from Yahoo Finance.
However, this positive development comes on the heels of a challenging business quarter for ABTC. The company reported a significant loss of $59.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2025, reflecting the broader difficulties faced by the mining industry amid economic headwinds. Key issues contributing to these struggles include decreased block rewards since the April 2024 Bitcoin halving, rising energy costs, and a continuous decline in cryptocurrency prices due to ongoing bear market conditions. Consequently, the price of Bitcoin plummeted over 50%, reaching a low of approximately $60,000 in February at the time ABTC filed its Q4 results with the SEC.
ABTC specifically attributed its fourth-quarter losses to a staggering $227.1 million decrease in the fair value of its Bitcoin holdings, closely linked to market volatility. Despite these challenges, the company reported an ability to mine Bitcoin at a remarkable 53% discount compared to current spot market prices.
Highlighting the ongoing challenges within the mining sector, public Bitcoin mining companies collectively sold more Bitcoin in the first quarter of 2026 than in the entirety of 2025. Industry players, including Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), CleanSpark, Riot Blockchain, Cango, Core Scientific, and Bitdeer, sold around 32,000 Bitcoin during that quarter. This volume surpasses the previous record of 20,000 Bitcoin sold by public mining companies in the second quarter of 2022, indicating a shifting landscape in the cryptocurrency mining market amidst economic adversity.
