Marathon registers record bitcoin production in Q1 2023
Marathon Digital Holdings has reported a record increase in its bitcoin (BTC) production, hash rate, and financial position for the month of March and the first quarter of 2023.
According to a press release, Marathon produced 825 BTC in March 2023, a 21% increase from the previous month and a 74% increase from last year.
The mining company also produced 2,195 bitcoins in the first quarter of 2023, a 41% increase from the fourth quarter of 2022. The company’s average bitcoin production per day was 24.4 in March 2023, compared to 17 in December 2022 and 14 in March 2022.
Marathon also increased its operational hash rate, the computing power used to mine bitcoin, by 64% in the first quarter of 2023. As of March 31, 2023, the digital mining outfit had an operational hash rate of 11.5 exahashes per second (EH/s), equivalent to about 0.7% of the total Bitcoin network hash rate.
Marathon’s improved operational hash rate resulted from the reactivation of 13,000 bitcoin mining rigs previously installed at Applied Digital’s North Dakota plant.
The company added another 9,400 S19 XP miners in its Ellendale facility and about 3,500 at its Jamestown operation for an additional 3.35 EH/s.
Marathon’s financial position improves
In addition to its operational progress, Marathon also improved its financial position by reducing its debt and increasing its bitcoin holdings. The company said it had prepaid its term loan and terminated its credit facilities with Silvergate Bank, which reduced its debt by about $50 million.
Marathon had previously disclosed that it had access to $142 million held by Signature Bank before the bank’s closure. It also confirmed that it had no direct business ties to failed technology lender Silicon Valley Bank.
The press release also stated that the company had increased its available bitcoin holdings by 3,132 BTC to 11,466 BTC as of March 31, 2023. The market value of these bitcoins was approximately $326.5 million around that time. It also had $124.9 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents.
Fred Thiel, Marathon’s chairman and CEO, expressed optimism about the company’s growth and performance.
He said that the company made significant progress in executing its two main objectives for the year: energizing its previously purchased mining rigs to reach its target of 23 EH/s by the middle of this year and optimizing its operations to become more effective and efficient.
