Marathon is now the 2nd largest publicly traded holder of Bitcoin, CEO says

by · November 8, 2022

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings is now understood to be the second largest holder of Bitcoin in the world among publicly traded companies.

During the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Nov. 8, Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel revealed that the company now holds 11,300 Bitcoins — worth about $205 million — “making Marathon the second largest holder of Bitcoin among publicly traded companies worldwide,” with reference to named names. third party data.

According to CoinGecko, the NASDAQ-listed crypto miner is ranked second only to MicroStrategy Inc., which has nearly 130,000 Bitcoin in total. It is followed by the crypto exchange Coinbase and the Jack Dorsey-founded payments company Block Inc.

The company reported third quarter earnings on November 8, noting that it added 616 Bitcoin to its holdings in the quarter, while another 615 Bitcoin was added in the month of October alone – the most productive month in the company’s history.

“The consistent improvement in our Bitcoin production is the direct result of increasing our hash rates by bringing more Bitcoin servers online and improving those servers,” Thiel said during the conference call.

The Marathon Digital CEO also confirmed that to date, the company has still not sold any of its Bitcoin, and will continue to take that position unless deemed “necessary to cover operational or other expenses.”

This differs from other major miners such as Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific and Riot Blockchain, all of which had reported selling coins to pay the bills.

Thiel also used the call to mention the “battle” between Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Sam Bankman-Fried – which he says is causing “unease” for the price of Bitcoin, but said it is likely to return to a range around $18,000 to $20,000, which they “feel very comfortable” in.

However, the bitcoin miner’s earnings took a beating in the third quarter, with net losses nearly tripling year-over-year to $75.4 million, while revenue fell 75.5% year-on-year to $12.7 billion.

Both metrics failed to meet analyst expectations as miner exits from the Montana facility and falling Bitcoin prices led to lower BTC production in the quarter.

Thiel called the third quarter a period of “transition and rebuilding” after the exit from Hardin, and it begins with capacity at new sites, including the King Mountain wind farm in Texas.

Related: Bitcoin miner Iris Energy faces $103 million in default claims from creditors

On November 7, rival Bitcoin miner Riot Blockchain also reported third-quarter earnings that had missed analysts’ expectations.

The firm’s total revenue fell 28.5% in the third quarter, while its net loss widened 139.2% due to “significant curtailment activities” related to its Texas operations and a significant decline in the market price of Bitcoin compared to a year ago.

Both Riot Blockchain and Marathon Digital’s share prices have fallen over the past five days, with Riot Blockchain’s shares down 17.62% and Marathon Digital’s down 18.02% over the past five days, according to Google Finance.