IREN Ltd experienced a surge in its share value, closing up over 11% on Wednesday, after announcing impressive Bitcoin mining results for July. The company reported mining 728 Bitcoin (BTC), surpassing industry heavyweight MARA Holdings, which mined 703 BTC. This achievement is particularly noteworthy considering IREN operated with a smaller deployed hashrate of 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) compared to MARA's 58.9 EH/s.

IREN's robust performance occurred amid increasing mining difficulty, which has heightened energy consumption and pressured miners' profitability. This environment necessitates the adoption of more efficient equipment or the reduction of energy costs. IREN maintained an average hashrate of 45.4 EH/s throughout July, suggesting a high level of operational efficiency.

The company's success in July has significantly impacted its market capitalization, elevating it to $4.11 billion. This positions IREN as the second-largest among public Bitcoin miners, surpassing Riot Platforms and Core Scientific, and trailing only MARA.

In addition to its Bitcoin mining success, IREN is strategically expanding into the artificial intelligence (AI) sector. The company reported that $2.3 million of its July revenue came from its growing AI cloud business, reflecting its efforts to diversify beyond Bitcoin mining. Co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts noted increasing interest in the company's NVIDIA Blackwell GPUs, designed for AI applications. IREN acquired 2,400 of these GPUs in early July, with an initial delivery of 256 units.

IREN's rise to prominence in Bitcoin mining comes at a time when the entire Bitcoin network is experiencing unprecedented growth. The network's collective hashrate has soared past 900 exahashes per second (EH/s), signifying increased network security and more participants vying for block rewards. A higher hashrate indicates a stronger and more robust network.

IREN's achievement of reaching the 50 EH/s milestone reflects its ability to rapidly deliver complex energy and data center infrastructure. The company's 50 EH/s accounts for approximately 6% of the total Bitcoin network hashrate.

MARA's July performance was lower than in June, although it followed a strong second-quarter earnings report with a 64% year-on-year revenue increase to $238 million. MARA also holds the second-largest Bitcoin treasury, with 50,000 BTC, second only to Michael Saylor's Strategy.