Ben Strack

Though one of the largest public bitcoin miners suffered a net loss of $687 million in 2022, Marathon Digital’s CEO says it remains on track to more than double its hash rate in the next few months and expand to a new region.



Marathon Digital’s deficit last year sprinted up from a $37 million loss in 2021. The company attributed the higher shortfall, in part, to “unfavorable variances” in a company announcement earlier this month.



A total of $651 million of the losses were unrelated to business operations, <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/marathon-digital" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Marathon</a> CEO Fred Thiel told Blockworks in an interview. They came in the form of impairment charges on the company’s mining rigs and digital assets — incurred when the value of an asset falls below the cost at which it was purchased.



Analysts at Compass Point Research and Trading maintained its buy rating of the stock in a research note last week, noting that it excludes non-cash impairments in its estimates.



Marathon’s stock price was $7.83 at 1:00 pm ET on Thursday — down about 1.5% on the day.



Compass Point lowered its price target from $11.50 to $10, as analysts expect the company’s share count to increase and bitcoin holdings to decrease. Marathon sold 650 of the 683 bitcoins it produced in February for operating expenses — a practice the company expects to continue, according to Thiel.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Hash rate growth, moving into UAE</h2>



The Florida-based miner is on track to fulfill its hash rate growth target from 9.5 exahashes (EH), as of Feb. 28, to 23 EH by mid-year, Thiel said.



It energized about 19,000 bitcoin miners last month, including 8,000 S19 XPs, Bitmain’s most recent ASIC hardware release in July 2022.



Not included in the expected 23 EH of computing power is Marathon’s upcoming entrance into the United Arab Emirates. The company revealed a joint venture with FS Innovation to build and operate two crypto mining sites in Abu Dhabi — amounting to 250 megawatts.



Thiel called the expansion the firm’s “first foray into vertical integration,” noting that the site would utilize self-designed immersion systems. Marathon began an immersion-cooled pilot project in November, which involves submerging mining servers in a dielectric fluid. It found that such technology could reduce the cost of servers when compared to using air-cooled setups.



“They have very warm summers, and then outside that period of time the temperature is quite mild,” Thiel said of the region. “[It’s] the perfect marriage to their energy situation where we can come in, take all that stranded energy and use it for bitcoin mining.”



Keep reading for more excerpts from Blockworks’ interview with Thiel.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Blockworks: What could stand in the way of Marathon meeting its goal of 23 EH of computing power by mid-year?



Thiel: Our build-out domestically right now is predominantly with Applied Digital.



We don’t see any hindrances there. Construction is well on its way, if not completed, at a number of the sites. Miners have already been delivered, so that’s not an issue.



So, if you typically think of the issues, of ‘do you have regulatory approval for the energy to energize, do you have construction completed, do you have your transformers installed and on site, and do you have your miners?’ In all cases, those items have all been taken care of.



Blockworks: How do you think about managing your bitcoin holdings going forward?



Thiel: If you go back to the 2021 period, the cost of capital was very low. It was easy to raise debt, it was easy to raise equity capital, and so it made sense to <a href="https://www.blockworksresearch.com/glossary#hodl-slang">hodl</a> all your bitcoin.



Then we go through 2022, [there’s] a big price decline, the markets get tighter. We still had a good ability to raise equity capital, so we focused, in the second half of 2022, on really strengthening our balance sheet, paying off all our current and revolving debt…and building a cash pile while continuing to build a bitcoin pile.



For this year and going forward…we’re going to sell bitcoin to cover operating expenses. We’ll look to hodl the rest, and so over time our bitcoin pile should continue to grow.



And, as we need capital for growth initiatives, we’ll leverage the capital markets for that.



Blockworks: What about potential acquisition opportunities?



Thiel: There are still a lot of miners who made investments in infrastructure — power and sites — and were not able to raise capital to either fully complete those sites or populate them with their own miners.



So there are a number of sites coming to market that miners like us could look at potentially investing in or acquiring. We’re very picky as we look at that.&nbsp;



The last thing we want to do is go and add a bunch of two-generation-old miners that may only have a year or two of good life on them and pay any sort of price for those.”



If an opportunity comes along where we can essentially acquire a site with a great power energy agreement, and it’s renewable energy predominately and there just happens to be miners there, we’ll definitely look at it. We probably won’t pay anything for the miners because what we’re really looking at is access to the energy and infrastructure.



We’re looking much more at a mix of sites going forward — self-designed and self-built, some third-party and then also joint venturing with folks. So I think you’ll see much more diversity in our site mix going forward.



This interview was edited for clarity and brevity.



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Marathon CEO: ‘Diversity in Site Mix’ Is Key to Future Growth

Marathon Digital will likely stay focused on tripling its hash rate organically by the middle of next year — before potentially acting on other buying opportunities among distressed bitcoin miners, CEO Fred Thiel said Tuesday.&nbsp;



The comments during the company’s earnings call Tuesday doubled down on the executive’s strategy <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/marathon-ceo-building-more-attractive-than-buying-right-now/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">shared with Blockworks last month</a>.



“We’d prefer to buy the latest, state-of-the-art miners, deploy them so we have an energy consumption advantage…and then drive the type of hosting agreements that fit our model,” Thiel said Tuesday. “I don’t see us going and consolidating the industry necessarily, but that being said, there may be unique opportunities and we’ll be open to looking at things.”



For example, Thiel said last month Marathon <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-miner-consolidation-imminent-as-some-industry-players-struggle/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">would keep an eye on cheap assets</a> from struggling miners. The mining rig operator could look to purchase a hosting site, for example, if such a buy made strategic sense.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-miner-consolidation-imminent-as-some-industry-players-struggle/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Industry watchers told Blockworks</a> earlier this month that miner consolidation is imminent as some have reported financial pressures in recent weeks, such as Argo Blockchain, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/core-scientific-stock-price-plummets-70-as-it-considers-bankruptcy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Core Scientific</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bitcoin-miner-iris-energy-says-its-bad-debt-contained-in-rotten-arms/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Iris Energy</a>. 



Marathon Digital posted a net loss of roughly $75 million during the third quarter, an improvement from its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-miner-marathon-digital-posts-192m-net-loss-in-q2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">net loss of $192 million</a> during the second quarter.



Its stock price, which is down nearly 70% year to date, dropped about 5% during trading hours Tuesday. The stock dipped 0.8% in after-hours trading, as of 5:30 p.m. ET.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Many crypto-related stocks took a hit Tuesday after Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao <a href="https://twitter.com/cz_binance/status/1590013613586411520" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a> the exchange intends to buy FTX. Coinbase’s stock dropped nearly 11%, for example, while others like Silvergate Capital and MicroStrategy each plummeted about 20%. 



The loss was driven in part by the drop in the carrying value of its digital assets, as well as lower bitcoin production.&nbsp;



The company produced 616 bitcoins from June to September — representing a 51% from the third quarter of 2021 and a 13% sequential decrease. This was due to Marathon’s exit from its facility in Hardin, Montana and delays in the energization of its site in McCamey, Texas.



Marathon has turned around its lower bitcoin generation so far in the fourth quarter by producing a record 615 bitcoins in October to increase its total holdings to 11,285 BTC.



The company said last week it added about 32,000 miners last month to raise its hashrate to roughly 7 exahashes per second (EH/s). Marathon seeks to hit roughly 9 EH/s by the end of 2022 and 23 EH/s by mid-2023.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We expect bitcoin to trade in this $18,000 to $22,000 range for some time, and we think we’re very well-positioned to weather that storm and come out the other side very attractively as bitcoin goes up in price,” Thiel said.</blockquote>



Executives said the company would continue holding bitcoin but could look to sell a portion of produced BTC in the future to cover operating expenses.



Marathon Digital competitor Riot Blockchain on Monday reported a net loss of nearly $37 million during the third quarter. Its stock went down about 7% on Tuesday.



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bitcoin-mining-consolidation-more-bankruptcies-expected-analysts-say/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Analysts recently told Blockworks</a> that though firms like Marathon and Riot are in strong financial positions to take advantage of opportunities, they expect more suffering to be had before more bankruptcies and acquisitions take place.  



Stronghold Mining and Hut 8 Mining are scheduled to host earnings calls Wednesday at 5:00 pm ET and Thursday at 10:00 am ET, respectively. Canada-based miner Bitfarms is set to report its third quarter results on Nov. 14 at 11 am ET.



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Marathon Digital Focused on Organic Growth in Near Term Despite Buying Opportunities

<div id="highlights-block_63486a187e247" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Bankruptcy proceedings of hosting provider Compute North not expected to impact the miner operationally, CEO says</li>
 <li>Marathon seeks to quadruple its hash rate by mid-2023 and is seeking to expand internationally</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Though consolidation of crypto miners is likely imminent, Marathon Digital’s chief executive said, mergers and acquisitions are likely to play out between the segment’s smaller players.&nbsp;



“The equity markets aren’t getting any looser, the debt markets aren’t getting any cheaper, and you see some of the deals miners are doing for financing are pretty expensive,” <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/fredthiel/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Marathon CEO Fred Thiel</a> told Blockworks. 


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-medium"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="246" height="300" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg" alt="Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel" class="wp-image-34509" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg?w=246 246w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg?w=210 210w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg?w=214 214w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg?w=179 179w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg?w=65 65w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg?w=41 41w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/Fred-Thiel-Head-Shot-246x300.jpeg?w=320 320w" sizes="(max-width: 246px) 100vw, 246px" /><figcaption>Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel | Source: Marathon Digital</figcaption></figure></div>


But for the largest bitcoin mining companies with ample cash reserves and up-to-date new machinery, Thiel added, it’s more prudent, in many cases, to build than it is to buy.&nbsp;



Many mining companies raised money during the bull run late last year to ink power agreements and order containers. Expecting to raise more money for machines, miners saw capital markets start to close, leaving them with unused hosting capacity.&nbsp;



Other companies built out third-party hosting capacity, expecting higher growth that ultimately fell far short of their projections.&nbsp;



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“We’re getting a lot of phone calls,” Thiel said. “Companies who before were just considering self-mining are now having to actively look at offering up hosting capacity to a third-party. We’re starting to see more and more attractive deals.”</blockquote>



Thiel and other industry executives have pointed to the price of new machines — which has plummeted in recent months — as rationale to continue building m, not buying. Hut 8 Mining CEO Jaime Leverton said during a panel at Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit in New York last month that asset-based M&amp;A deals with other firms can be “tricky” as a result.



“If you paid $70 or $80 per terahash for your equipment — and you’ve got some leverage on that — I’m not going to take your debt for overpriced machines, when I can just buy machines straight-up for $20 or $25 per terahash,” Leverton said.&nbsp;



Frank Holmes, executive chair of HIVE Blockchain Technologies, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/ex-eth-miner-hive-blockchain-eyes-buying-opportunities-post-merge/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told Blockworks last month</a> that his firm is set to evaluate buys of equipment, and potentially mining firms, over the next six months. 



Energy prices — a top concern for all miners — are hitting certain companies in the space particularly hard, Thiel said.



“As we get through this winter, the consolidation and the kind of cleansing that will happen, it will be very clear which businesses are professionally run and well financed and which ones aren’t,” he said.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Hash rate growth, international expansion</h3>



Marathon posted <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/crypto-miner-marathon-digital-posts-192m-net-loss-in-q2/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a net loss of $192 million</a> during the second quarter and is set to report its third quarter earnings next month.



The company said on Oct. 6 that its fleet of 57,000 represents a capacity of roughly 5.7 exahashes per second (EH/s). An additional 19,000 miners — amounting to 2 EH/s, are expected to come online in the next 30 days.



Thiel told Blockworks the company seeks to hit roughly 13 EH/s by the end of 2022 and 23 EH/s by mid-2023.&nbsp;



“Hosting has all been contracted; the machines have all been ordered, and pretty much all paid for and are scheduled inbound,” the Marathon CEO said. “Stuff can happen…but at this point there are no gating items that we’re aware of.”



<a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/marathon-reveals-80m-in-total-exposure-to-bankrupt-crypto-mining-data-firm/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Thiel said</a> last month’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/compute-norths-business-goes-south/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bankruptcy filings by Compute North</a>, one of Marathon’s hosting providers, is not expected to impact Marathon’s growth targets. The entities associated with the King Mountain and Wolf Hollow mining sites in Texas are not directly subject to the bankruptcy process, he added.



“The court already gave [Compute North] permission to continue operating as it prepares to auction assets in the coming weeks and months to pay down its debt,” Compass Point Research &amp; Trading analysts Chase White and Joe Flynn wrote in an Oct. 4 research note. “Even after this, we expect [Marathon] to continue to be allowed to operate at the data centers given the value of the operations is almost solely driven by miners actually mining.”



Marathon invested $10 million in Compute North via convertible preferred stock. It also loaned the company $21.3 million and has paid the hosting provider roughly $50 million in operating deposits.



“We don’t see any issues with the deposits at this point,” Thiel said. “The loan that we have to them we’ll see how the bankruptcy all shakes out and what we end up with.”



As Marathon continues adding miners to its US sites, Thiel said the company is also looking to build relationships, as well as new mining sites, internationally — naming Latin America and the Middle East as potential targets.&nbsp;



“There’s a lot of stranded energy in parts of the world where energy is very inexpensive and where regime risk is fairly low, and so we’re definitely exploring that,” he said. “We think Texas is reaching a point where there’s a lot of mining in Texas and people need to start looking at other places.”



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Marathon CEO: Building More Attractive Than Buying Right Now

<div id="highlights-block_61ae3d8c27a91" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Hut 8 Mining, Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital and HIVE Blockchain Technologies held nearly 19,000 bitcoin combined at the end of November</li>
 <li>Riot Blockchain recently bought ESS Metron, while Marathon Digital expanded its agreement with Compute North to host more than 100,000 of its bitcoin miners</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Crypto miners continue to hold the bitcoin they are producing, and some have plans to grow their businesses even more to continue building reserves.&nbsp;



Some of the largest such companies in North America — Hut 8 Mining, Riot Blockchain, Marathon Digital and HIVE Blockchain Technologies — now hold roughly 18,940 bitcoins combined. The businesses continue to expand their operational footprints in an effort to increase their production capacities.



Other companies, such as Celsius Network, are looking to catch up. Celsius started its bitcoin mining business last year as a way to diversify its sources of yield, and announced an <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/celsius-to-invest-additional-300m-in-bitcoin-mining/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">additional $300 million investment</a> into its mining capabilities last month.    



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Hut 8 Mining</h3>



Hut 8 Mining mined 265 bitcoins in November, an average of nearly nine per day, the company revealed. The total last month was up from 249 bitcoins mined in October and slightly lower than its output of 273 the month prior.



The Canada-based miner is keeping all of its mined bitcoin as part of its <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/marathon-digital-hut-8-mining-building-up-bitcoin-reserves/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">broader “hodl” strategy</a>, the firm noted in a December 2 announcement. Its reserves total 5,242 bitcoin, as of November 30, and about 2,000 of its bitcoins are earning yield, according to the firm.



The value of Hut 8’s reserves as of Monday at 12 Noon ET — when bitcoin was priced at about $49,100 — was roughly $257 million.



Hut 8, in November, completed the deployment of NVIDIA chips at the company’s site in Medicine Hat, Alberta. The NVIDIA cryptocurrency mining processors mine the Ethereum network via Luxor pool and are receiving payouts in bitcoin, which equate to about two additional bitcoin per day.&nbsp;



The company currently has an installed hashrate of approximately 1.7 exahash per second (EH/s). The company is on track to meet its goal of between 2.5 EH/s and 3 EH/s by the end of the year, a representative told Blockworks, and looks to reach 6 EH/s by the middle of 2022.&nbsp;



The development of Hut 8’s <a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/hut-8-mining-announces-third-site-status-update-846652660.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">third mining site</a> in North Bay, Ontario, is under way, the spokesperson added. The facility, expected to be ready by the end of the year, will begin with 35 megawatts of capacity.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Riot Blockchain</h3>



Colorado-based Riot Blockchain produced 466 bitcoin in November, bringing its year-to-date total to 3,387 BTC — roughly a 260% increase over its bitcoin production over the same period last year.



Riot held 4,464 bitcoins, all produced by its mining operations, as of November 30. It has a deployed fleet of 29,095 miners with a hashrate capacity of 3 EH/s.&nbsp;



The company has increased its 2022 estimated hashrate capacity to 9.0 EH/s due to a recent $33 million purchase order with Bitmain for 3,000 of its latest miner model S19XP. The delivery and deployment of these machines is expected in the second half of 2022.



Riot also announced last week that it bought ESS Metron, which designs and produces electrical equipment solutions, many of which the acquirer said are critical to deploying bitcoin mining operations at scale.



Denver-based ESS Metron has facilities that total 121,000 square feet, and the company is a key supplier to Riot’s Whinstone facility in Rockdale, Texas.



“Riot’s strategic positioning across the electrical supply chain is significantly enhanced as the company will benefit from ESS Metron’s existing relationships with leading electrical suppliers globally,” Riot CEO Jason Les said in a statement. “In addition, Riot will continue its fast-tracked expansion project as the company benefits from internalizing ESS Metron’s engineering and industry expertise.”&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Marathon Digital</h3>



Marathon Digital, a bitcoin miner based in Las Vegas, is also focused on growth.&nbsp;



The company mined 196 bitcoins in November, which was down from 417.7 bitcoins in October. The sharp decrease reflects maintenance and upgrades to its power generating station in Hardin, Montana.



The miner’s existing mining fleet consists of 31,000 active miners producing roughly 3.2 EH/s. It has produced 2,712 bitcoins in the first 11 months of 2021, bringing its bitcoin holdings total to 7,649.&nbsp;



The company last sold bitcoin in October 2020, and since then, has been accumulating all the bitcoin it generates.



“I think all miners believe that the price of bitcoin will go up, and by not selling bitcoin, we essentially cause the price to go up somewhat,” Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/marathon-digital-hut-8-mining-building-up-bitcoin-reserves/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">previously told Blockworks</a>. 



Marathon received about 15,500 ASIC miners from Bitmain in November, bringing its year-to-date total to 57,000 miners. An additional 8,477 miners are currently in transit, the firm reported.



The company recently expanded its agreement with Compute North to host more than 100,000 of Marathon’s previously purchased bitcoin miners at multiple locations, including wind and solar farms across the US.



The news follows Marathon announcing its intention in May for Compute North to host roughly 73,000 of Marathon’s bitcoin miners in Texas.



Once all 133,000 of Marathon’s bitcoin miners are deployed, the company’s hash rate will be approximately 13.3 EH/s, its blended cost of electricity and hosting will be approximately $0.042 per kilowatt-hour, and Marathon’s mining operations will be approximately 77% carbon-neutral.\



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">HIVE Blockchain Technologies</h3>



Vancouver-headquartered HIVE Blockchain Technologies produced 218 bitcoins in November and held a total of 1,584 as of the end of the month.&nbsp;



“We are very pleased to report HIVE has continued its strong momentum following our record-breaking October production figures,” HIVE Executive Chairman Frank Holmes said in a statement. “This trend is continued in our November production, where HIVE is again generating over $280 million in annual revenue on a run-rate basis using November figures.”



HIVE also mined 2,334 ether in November, as the company stated in a December 3 news release that it believes its unique position of having a large bitcoin and Ethereum mining footprint provides investors a unique value proposition.



MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, an outspoken proponent of bitcoin, <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/michael-saylor-bitcoin-is-a-trillion-dollar-opportunity-for-tech-giants/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said in July</a> that there’s a “land grab” to acquire as much bitcoin as possible, noting the ultimate maximum of 21 million that will one day be in circulation. The company’s <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/microstrategy-announces-new-414-4m-bitcoin-buy/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">latest bitcoin buy</a> was 7,002 bitcoins at an average price of $59,187, according to Saylor. MicroStrategy now holds about 121,000 bitcoins acquired for nearly $3.6 billion — an average price of about $29,500.



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