Marathon mines record bitcoins in March and first quarter

Digital asset technology company Marathon Digital Holdings mined a company-record 825 bitcoins in March. It also mined a company-record 2,195 bitcoins in the first quarter.

The increase in bitcoins mined stems from Marathon's 64% increase in operational hash rate. Since Jan. 1, the company increased its mining power to 11.5 EH/s from 7.0 EH/s.

Marathon also energized 13,000 previously installed bitcoin miners at Applied Digital's North Dakota facility last month.

As of the start of April, Marathon reports an operating fleet of roughly 105,200 bitcoin miners, with a theoretical production capacity of 11.5 EH/s. It expects to report a mid-year mining capacity of 23 EH/s.

“In addition to our operational progress, we also improved our financial position during the quarter," Marathon Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said. "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."

Marathon previously noted that it had access to $142 million in cash deposits held by now-closed Signature Bank, and confirmed it had no direct business relationship with shuttered Silicon Valley Bank.

Thiel also noted that Marathon "exited the quarter with approximately $124.9 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents and 11,466 bitcoin, the market value of which was approximately $326.5 million on March 31."

Marathon's Q4 2022 revenue declined 58% year-over-year to $28.4 million. Its full-year revenue for 2022 also declined 26% to $117.8 million. It recorded a net loss of $686.7 million last year — significantly worse than 2021's loss of $38.1 million.