Marathon Digital (MARA), a leading Bitcoin miner, recently released its financial results for the first quarter of 2024, showcasing both successes and challenges in its operation. Despite facing operational hurdles, the company reported significant revenue growth and record-breaking profits.
In its earnings report, Marathon Digital revealed that its first-quarter revenues increased by a staggering 223% compared to the same period last year, reaching $165.2 million. However, this fell short of Wall Street analysts’ estimates by 14.80%.
CEO Fred Thiel attributed this discrepancy to unexpected equipment failures and adverse weather conditions at multiple mining sites.
Thiel remarked:
“Bitcoin production […] was negatively impacted by unexpected equipment failures, predominantly transformers that our third-party hosted sites, utility company transmission line maintenance, and higher than anticipated weather-related curtailments at Garden City[…]”
Thiel also highlighted significant achievements. Marathon expanded their digital asset compute portfolio, launched products and services to support the Bitcoin ecosystem, and overcame operational challenges to achieve record financial results.
Within four months, the company initiated, closed, and integrated acquisitions of three sites, doubling their portfolio to 1.1 gigawatts of capacity, 54% of which they directly own and operate.
It also secured paying customers for MARA firmware and started building a sales pipeline for their two-phase immersion system after bringing their first products to market in March.
Marathon Digital’s Profit Soars Despite Challenges
Despite the revenue falling short of expectations, Marathon Digital’s net income soared by an impressive 184% year-on-year, reaching $337.2 million in the first quarter of 2024.
This remarkable growth was primarily driven by a favorable mark-to-market adjustment on the bitcoin holdings, as per the newly adopted Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) rules.
The CEO highlighted the company’s resilience in the face of challenges, stating:
“Despite the operational challenges we faced in the first quarter, we were able to leverage our agility to redistribute equipment to newly acquired sites amidst ongoing repairs.
When combined with our HODL strategy, these actions allowed us to capitalize on Bitcoin’s positive momentum and produce record financial results for the quarter.”
Marathon Digital mined a total of 2,811 BTC during the first quarter of 2024, representing a 28% increase from the same period last year. However, this figure was down 34% from the previous quarter, reflecting the challenges encountered during the period.
Despite these setbacks, Marathon Digital remains optimistic about its future mining capabilities.
Thiel reiterated Marathon’s dedication to increasing its hash rate, aiming for 50 exahash of energized hash rate by the end of 2024, with further growth anticipated in 2025.
With expansion capacity from recent acquisitions, 45 additional exahash of capacity from current orders and options, and $1.6 billion of liquidity, they are poised for this expansion.
According to Thiel, Marathon aims to evolve into a diverse, global technology company leveraging digital asset compute to foster a sustainable and inclusive future.
Following the release of its first-quarter results, Marathon Digital’s stock experienced a slight decline. Shares closed 2.19% down on May 9, with an additional 1% drop in after-hours trading.
However, the company’s long-term outlook remains positive, with plans to expand its mining capacity and introduce new products and services to support the Bitcoin ecosystem.
