(Kitco News) - Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) is now sitting on the second-largest publicly-traded pool of bitcoins in the world, according to CEO Fred Thiel.
Thiel made the announcement during a conference call with shareholders and media following the release of the company’s Q3 earnings.
The massive bitcoin miner now holds 10,054 bitcoin, representing $172.2 million in value at the current price. Marathon surpassed Coinbase’s 9,000 bitcoin to secure the number-two spot. The firm has mined 3,197 bitcoin this year through October 31, a 27% increase over the same time period in 2021.
MicroStrategy remains far and away the largest holder of BTC among public companies, with 129,699 tokens worth $2.2 billion on its balance sheet.
Marathon’s third quarter results missed revenue estimates, however, as the company posted a net loss of $75.4 million, or $0.65 per share, during Q3 compared with a loss of $0.22 per share in Q3 2021.
“The third quarter of 2022 was a transition and rebuilding period at Marathon,” Thiel wrote in a statement. “We sequentially improved our bitcoin production each month during the quarter as we rebuilt our hash rate from approximately 0.7 exahashes per second in early July to 3.8 exahashes per second by September 30.”
Thiel said the company also saw their highest monthly production ever in October when they produced 615 bitcoin, almost equaling the production of the entire third quarter.
“We believe Marathon has a strong foundation on which we can continue to build our hash rate,” Thiel said. “Our near-term goal is to reach approximately 9.0 exahashes per second by the end of the year, and we continue to target 23 exahashes per second near the middle of 2023 as we strive to establish our position as a leader in supporting and securing the bitcoin ecosystem.”
The company said the downbeat earnings were partially due to their previously announced exit from the Hardin, MT facility, together with delays in the initial energization of the King Mountain facility in McCamey, TX.
As of September 30, Marathon had 37,000 active miners producing approximately 3.8 EH/s, but by November 1, the company’s operating mining fleet had increased to 69,000 active miners producing approximately 7.0 EH/s.
Marathon’s stock fell as low as $9.25 following the release of yesterday’s Q3 results, but it’s currently trading at $10.19 per share, just off the Nov. 7 close of $10.50.
