Cryptocurrency mining company TeraWulf (WULF +3.96%) wasn't mining gains for its investors at the close of the stock trading week. Its shares lost more than 9% of their value in Friday's session, due almost entirely to a quarterly earnings report that disappointed the market. The S&P 500 (^GSPC +0.84%) did relatively well that day, closing more or less at the level where it opened in the morning.
First-quarter flop
That earnings release was the first covering TeraWulf's 2025 performance, and hopefully for its shareholders, it won't be indicative of the rest of the year. Revenue fell to $34.4 million for the period from first quarter 2024's $42.4 million, as the number of its chosen crypto -- Bitcoin -- it mined fell to 372 from the year-ago tally of 1,051.
Image source: Getty Images.
Net loss deepened significantly, coming in at over $61 million ($0.16 per share) against the previous first quarter's less than $15 million.
Exacerbating those dynamics, TeraWulf didn't come close to meeting analyst estimates for key fundamentals. Pundits following the crypto miner's stock assumed the company would earn slightly more than $46 million on the top line, and book an adjusted net loss of merely $0.04 per share.
NASDAQ: WULF
Key Data Points
Extracting some serious disappointment
Understandably, TeraWulf management elected to look on the bright side in the earnings report. It quoted CFO Patrick Fleury as saying, "With $219.6 million in cash and Bitcoin holdings at quarter-end, we are well-capitalized to fund our near-term growth."
That was cold comfort to investors, who seemed to be caught off-guard by the deterioration in those leading fundamentals. Recent gains in cryptocurrencies -- like Bitcoin, as it happens -- aren't going to help miners like TeraWulf either. Crypto-curious investors these days are instead probably better off investing directly in coins or tokens, or in a spot crypto exchange-traded fund (ETF).
