Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital Sold Almost All Bitcoin Mined in February

Marathon Digital (MARA), one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin miners, sold 650 bitcoins out of 683 it mined in February.

The company said it sold the bitcoin to help pay for operating expenses and for general corporate purposes, according to a statement. Marathon sold 1,500 bitcoins in January, which marked the first time it had unloaded any of its holdings.

Even with the February sales, said company Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel, Marathon increased its unrestricted bitcoin holdings from 8,090 bitcoins as of Jan. 31, 2023, to 8,260, valued at $191.2 million as of Feb. 28.

The move to sell brings Marathon's strategy in line with some of its peers, including Riot Platforms (RIOT), which started selling some of its mined bitcoin last year. Prior to January, Marathon was among few remaining miners who continued to hold onto its mined bitcoin, even though the company in May 2022 indicated it could become a seller at some point.

Turning to operations, Marathon said it had installed computing power of 14 exahash per second (EH/s) at the end of February, up from 11 EH/s a month earlier, and plans to reach 23 EH/s near the middle of 2023. The company ended the month with $219.7 million in unrestricted cash on hand, according to the statement.

Earlier this week, the miner cancelled its earnings report and said that it will need to restate portions of its audited 2021 results and currently unaudited quarterly reports from 2022 after an inquiry from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) flagged technical accounting matters. Riot Platforms on Thursday also said it will delay its 10-K filings with the SEC due to due to issues raised by its accounting firm about the company's impairment calculations related to its bitcoin assets.

Marathon's shares were little changed in after-hours trading on Thursday, remaining higher by more than 80% in 2023. Bitcoin is down about 1% over the last 24 hours and higher by 42% year to date.