In Q2 2024, the company’s adjusted EBITDA swung into a loss of $85.1 million from a profit of $35.8 million in the previous year.
Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (NASDAQ: MARA) reported its Q2 2024 earnings on Thursday, August 1, while missing its revenue numbers by a wide margin from Wall Street expectations. As a result, the MARA Stock dropped by 7.7% as of Thursday’s closing.
As reported, Marathon’s revenue for the last quarter stood at $145.1 million against the expected $157.9 million. The company’s sales took a major hit in Q2 as it faced major operational challenges following the Bitcoin halving event in April 2024.
The Bitcoin halving cut down miner rewards to half, now at 3.125 BTC while increasing the computation complexity associated with the mining of new blocks. Furthermore, during Q2, the company’s adjusted EBITDA swung into a loss of $85.1 million from a profit of $35.8 million in the previous year.
This was majorly due to the lower BTC mined along with the fair value adjustment of the digital assets. In a statement on Thursday, Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel said:
“During the second quarter of 2024, our BTC production was impacted by unexpected equipment failures and transmission line maintenance at the Ellendale site operated by Applied Digital, increased global hash rate, and the April halving event.”
However, Marathon said that most of the company’s issues are now behind them as it managed to achieve an all-time high mining power of 31.5 exahash per second (EH/s) in Q2. Previously, Marathon Digital shared that it wants to reach the milestone hashrate of 50 EH/s by the year-end. Besides, the company also has additional expansion plans for the next year in 2025.
Marathon Digital Had to Sell 51% of Its Bitcoin Holdings
Marathon sold 51% of the Bitcoin it mined in the second quarter to cover its operating expenses. Recently, however, the company announced it had purchased $100 million worth of Bitcoin on the open market and resumed its strategy of retaining all BTC on its balance sheet. The miner now holds over 20,000 BTC. Theil said:
“During the quarter, we organized the internal structure of the business to better align with our growth opportunities, sharpen our strategic focus, bolster accountability, and accelerate our speed and agility as we scale.”
While the Bitcoin price is up 46% year-to-date, the MARA stock is down by nearly 18% in the same period. On the other hand, Bitcoin miners like CleanSpark have registered 40% gains year-to-date.
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