Marathon Digital, a major crypto mining firm, achieved a new record by mining 2,195 BTC in the first quarter of this year, increasing its total holdings to 11,466 BTC, worth over $321 million at current prices. This marked a stark contrast with the company’s performance in 2022, when a storm damaged 75% of its mining fleet, and a $80 million exposure to Compute North led to additional issues.
Successful Progress
Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel revealed that Q1 was their most successful one to date, outpacing the previous year’s results by mining 1,259 BTC in Q1 2022 and 1,562 BTC in Q4. This helped Marathon boost its hash rate to 11.5 exahashes, a 64% increase from the 7.0 exahashes at the end of last year, with the goal of reaching 23 exahashes by mid-2023 by deploying previously purchased mining equipment. Thiel added, “we made notable progress executing our two primary initiatives for the year.”
“During the first quarter of 2023, we made notable progress executing our two primary initiatives for the year, which are to energize our previously purchased mining rigs to reach our target of 23 exahashes by the middle of this year and to optimize our performance so that we are both more effective and more efficient.” – Thiel added.
In March, Marathon mined nearly 40% of its quarterly load, with 825 BTC. Additionally, it reduced $50 million in debt and increased its unrestricted Bitcoin holdings by 3,132 BTC after ending credit facilities with Silvergate Bank. Marathon ended Q1 with nearly $124.9 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and 11,466 BTC, worth almost $321 million.
Challenges in 2022
A severe storm in Montana caused significant damage to 75% of Marathon’s mining fleet in 2022, leading to a decline in production. The company later faced another problem with an $80 million exposure to Compute North, where over 68,000 of their BTC mining machines were installed and hosted; regulatory issues prevented the activation of 40,000 of them. To offset increasing costs, Marathon sold 1,500 BTC in January, abandoning its HODL strategy, the last time it sold any BTC was in October 2020.
