Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR) has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter, revealing that its net loss widened considerably to $531.9 million, a stark shift from the $5 million loss in the same quarter last year.

The Singapore-based bitcoin (BTC) mining company clarified that these increased expenses are due to strategic investments in the development of their own specialized ASIC mining rigs.

Matt Kong, chief business officer of the company, stated, “While our focus on ASIC development temporarily limited hashrate expansion, we made significant progress in strengthening our technology roadmap. Owning our own ASICs allows us to rapidly deploy hashrate, lower cost and improve capital efficiency.”

Adding to the financial strain, revenue also saw a significant decrease, dropping to $69 million – a 40% fall compared to the same period last year. This downturn impacted all areas of their business, with declines reported across self-mining, hosting, and cloud hash rate services.

Despite these setbacks, the company is determined to grow, with ambitious plans to increase its self-mining capacity to 40 exahash per second (EH/s) by the end of 2025. This expansion would position Bitdeer among the leading bitcoin mining operations globally.

Furthermore, Bitdeer is focused on scaling its power infrastructure, with over 1 gigawatt (GW) of capacity scheduled to come online next year, effectively more than doubling their current 900 megawatts (MW) capacity.

Looking beyond mining, Bitdeer also recognizes significant potential in the ASIC market, citing strong demand for alternative suppliers. They are also strategically positioning themselves to supply energy for AI data centers, with the aim of capitalizing on the ever-increasing demand for powerful computing.

News of these losses sent Bitdeer shares tumbling, experiencing a 28% plunge on the day, amidst a wider downturn in both traditional and crypto markets. The stock now finds itself trading at $9.49, a figure more than 64% lower than its all-time high reached at the end of December.