Fred Thiel

Marathon Digital posts quarterly record of 2,195 Bitcoin mined in Q1

With a new quarterly production record, Marathon Digital is now on track to meet its mid-year target of 23 exahashes.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining firm Marathon Digital has reported a quarterly record of 2,195 BTC mined over the first quarter of 2023, currently worth around $62 million.

Marathon reported in an April 3 update that the 2,195 mined BTC is a 74% increase from the first quarter of last year and a 41% increase from Q4 2022.

It comes on the back of the miner increasing its operational hash rate by 195% from Q1 2022.

Marathon also recorded a monthly record of 825 BTC mined in March — currently valued at around $23.3 million — and marked a 21% production increase from February.

In a statement, CEO Fred Thiel said Marathon made “notable progress” on executing its two primary initiatives for 2023 — to energize its previously purchased mining rigs to reach 23 exahashes by the end of the second quarter and to optimize performance.

The firm is now exactly on target, having increased its operational hash rate from 7.0 exahashes on Jan. 1 to 11.5 exahashes as of March 31.

Marathon’s management attributed the increase in efficiency to it bringing online 25,900 Bitcoin miners based in various facilities in North Dakota, bringing its fleet to 105,200 mining rigs as of April 1.

Marathon explained its operational improvements cleaned up part of its balance sheet by wiping out $50 billion in debt in addition to repaying its loan back to the now-failed Silvergate Bank:

“We reduced our debt by $50 million and increased our unrestricted Bitcoin holdings by 3,132 Bitcoin after we prepaid our term loan and terminated our credit facilities with Silvergate Bank.”

The firm finished the quarter with approximately $124.9 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, and 11,466 BTC, which equates to over $450 million.

Marathon noted the figures have not been audited.

Marathon’s figures show a stronger first quarter after tough market conditions in 2022. Source: Marathon Digital

Related: Bitcoin ASIC miner prices hovering at lows not seen in years

Marathon expects operational efficiencies to continue having purchased a new batch of Antminer S19 XPs Bitcoin mining rigs that are said to be nearly 30% more efficient than the Antminer S19 Pro.

Once those miners are installed approximately 66% of Marathon’s hash rate will come from the S19 XPs, it said.

The design of S19 XPs has, however, been criticized by fellow Bitcoin mining firm Compass Mining.

In a March report the firm identified “three flaws” of the new S19s which may result in the mining rig overheating, or in some cases, shutting down completely.

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Marathon is now the 2nd-largest listed holder of Bitcoin, says CEO

The United States-listed Bitcoin miner has produced at least 1,231 Bitcoin since the start of July and has sold none of it to date.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings is now understood to be the second-largest holder of Bitcoin in the world among publicly-listed companies.

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 8, Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel revealed the company now holds 11,300 Bitcoin — worth around $205 million — “making Marathon the second largest holder of Bitcoin among publicly traded companies worldwide, ” referring to unnamed third-party data.

According to CoinGecko, the NASDAQ-listed crypto miner is ranked second only to MicroStrategy Inc., which holds nearly 130,000 total Bitcoin. It’s followed by crypto exchange Coinbase and Jack Dorsey-founded payments company Block Inc.

The company reported its third-quarter earnings on Nov. 8, noting that it added 616 Bitcoin to its holdings in the quarter, while another 615 Bitcoin was added in the month of October alone — the most productive month in the company’s history.

“The consistent improvement in our Bitcoin production is the direct result of increasing our hash rates by bringing more Bitcoin servers online and improving those servers,” said Thiel during the conference call.

The Marathon Digital CEO also confirmed that to date, the company still has not sold any of its Bitcoin, and will continue to take that position unless deemed “necessary to cover operating expenses or other expenses.”

This differs from other major miners such as Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific, and Riot Blockchain, all of whom had reported selling coins in order to pay the bills.

Thiel also used the call to make mention the “battle” between Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried — which he says is causing “turmoil” for the price of Bitcoin but said it would likely come back to a range of around $18,000 to $20,000, which they “feel very comfortable” in.

The Bitcoin miner’s earnings however took a beating in the third quarter, with its net loss nearly tripling compared to the prior year, reaching $75.4 million, while revenue fell 75.5% year-on-year to $12.7 billion.

Both metrics failed to meet analysts’ expectations as the miner’s exit from its Montana facility and falling Bitcoin prices led to lower BTC production in the quarter.

Thiel called the third quarter a period of “transition and rebuilding” after its exit from Hardin and it begins out capabilities in new locations, including the King Mountain wind farm in Texas.

Related: Bitcoin miner Iris Energy faces $103M default claim from creditors

On Nov. 7, rival Bitcoin mining firm Riot Blockchain also reported third-quarter earnings which had missed analyst expectations.

The firm’s total revenue declined 28.5% in the third quarter while its net loss widened 139.2% due to “significant curtailment activities” relating to its activities in Texas, and a significant decrease in the market price of Bitcoin compared to a year ago.

Both Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital’s stock prices have declined over the past five days, with Riot Blockchain’s stocks down 17.62% and Marathon Digital’s down 18.02% in the past five days, according to Google Finance.

Marathon is now the 2nd-largest listed holder of Bitcoin — CEO

The United States-listed Bitcoin miner has produced at least 1,231 Bitcoin since the start of July and has sold none of it to date.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings is now understood to be the second-largest holder of Bitcoin in the world among publicly-listed companies.

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 8, Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel revealed the company now holds 11,300 BTC, worth around $205 million at the time of writing, “making Marathon the second largest holder of Bitcoin among publicly traded companies worldwide, ” referring to unnamed third-party data.

According to CoinGecko, the Nasdaq-listed crypto miner is ranked second only to MicroStrategy Inc., which holds nearly 130,000 BTC. It’s followed by crypto exchange Coinbase and Jack Dorsey-founded payments company Block Inc.

The company reported its third-quarter earnings on Nov. 8, noting that it added 616 BTC to its holdings in the quarter, while another 615 BTC was added in the month of October alone — the most productive month in the company’s history.

“The consistent improvement in our Bitcoin production is the direct result of increasing our hash rates by bringing more Bitcoin servers online and improving those servers,” said Thiel during the conference call.

The Marathon Digital CEO also confirmed that to date, the company still has not sold any of its Bitcoin, and will continue to take that position unless deemed “necessary to cover operating expenses or other expenses.”

This differs from other major miners such as Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific and Riot Blockchain, all of whom had reported selling coins in order to pay bills.

Thiel also used the call to make mention the “battle” between Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried — which he says is causing “turmoil” for the price of Bitcoin but said it would likely come back to a range of around $18,000 to $20,000, which they “feel very comfortable” in.

The Bitcoin miner’s earnings however took a beating in the third quarter, with its net loss nearly tripling compared to the prior year, reaching $75.4 million, while revenue fell 75.5% year-on-year to $12.7 billion.

Both metrics failed to meet analysts’ expectations as the miner’s exit from its Montana facility and falling Bitcoin prices led to lower BTC production in the quarter.

Thiel called the third quarter a period of “transition and rebuilding” after its exit from Hardin and it begins out capabilities in new locations, including the King Mountain wind farm in Texas.

Related: Bitcoin miner Iris Energy faces $103M default claim from creditors

On Nov. 7, rival Bitcoin mining firm Riot Blockchain also reported third-quarter earnings which had missed analyst expectations.

The firm’s total revenue declined 28.5% in the third quarter while its net loss widened 139.2% due to “significant curtailment activities” relating to its activities in Texas and a significant decrease in the market price of Bitcoin compared to a year ago.

Both Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital’s stock prices have declined over the past five days, with Riot Blockchain’s stocks down 17.62% and Marathon Digital’s down 18.02% in the past five days, according to Google Finance.

Marathon Q2 Bitcoin production down 44% as fleet remains crippled

Marathon had a particularly rough production month in June after 75% of its fleet went down. It’s still uncertain when its mining facilities will be able to come back online.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings experienced a steep 43.8% decline in Bitcoin production over the second quarter of 2022, with June registering as the company’s least productive month in over a year following the fall of its Montana facility. 

In its latest mining operation update released on Thursday, Marathon reported that it produced 707.1 Bitcoin in Q2 2022, down 43.8% from 1258.6 Bitcoin mined in Q1 2022. 

Marathon’s Bitcoin productivity has been on the decline through Q2 2022.

The company’s Bitcoin production took a particular hit in June after Marathon’s Hardin, Montana facility was hit by a massive storm on June 11, which knocked out the power station that fed 75% of its active fleet. 

The outage made June the company’s least productive month since March 2021, and threatens to continue into July. To date, the Montana facility is yet to return online, and no new blocks have been mined from the MARA mining pool since June 12. 

Marathon CEO Fred Thiel acknowledged that the storm in June had a major impact on productivity, but also cast some of the blame for the lack of hashing power on Marathon’s new Texas mining facilities, which have not yet switched on.

Thiel said the company has installed 29,640 miners “representing approximately 2.9 exahashes per second” in Texas already, though the energization of its facilities expected in June has not yet come to pass.

Thiel said that Compute North, the company hosting mining facilities for Marathon’s devices, can’t be powered until its energy provider gains “federal agency confirmation of its exempt status for tax purposes.”

Marathon’s vice president of corporate communications Charlie Schumacher told Cointelegraph earlier this month that it may be looking to diversify its mining operations across more states in the future.

Schumacher said that in addition to the existing facilities in Texas, the company was exploring options in the Dakota’s, Oklahoma and Georgia:

“We have already been expanding in Texas at different facilities to reduce the reliance on a single major facility. Getting geographic diversity will help protect us in the future.”

Concerns have arisen that more Bitcoin miners will sell coins in order to stay afloat amid rising energy costs and falling mining equipment and crypto prices. Cointelegraph reported on Wednesday that miner revenues are down over 70% from last November’s high.

Related: Bitcoin miners sell their hodlings, and ASIC prices keep dropping — What’s next for the industry?

So far, major miners such as Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific and Riot Blockchain have all reported selling coins to pay bills. Schumacher added that Marathon has not sold any coins yet and has no current plans to, but did not rule it out as an option:

“When looking at financing the business, we are looking to do it most advantageously.”