Marathon Digital scraps HODL strategy: Sells BTC after more than 2 years

Marathon Digital scraps HODL strategy: Sells BTC after more than 2 years

Marathon Digital Holdings – one of the leading Bitcoin miners – mined 687 BTC in January 2023, a 45% increase compared to the last month of 2022.

However, the company pivoted away from its non-sales strategy and parted with 1,500 BTC to cover operational costs.

Change of plan

Marathonstartedof the year by producing 687 BTC in January, a significant increase from 475 BTC in December 2022. Fred Thiel - Chairman and CEO - explained that the better results were due to the team's "ability to collaborate" with the new hosting provider in McCamey, Texas.

“We believe the improvements in our operational efficiencies, along with the proactive actions we have taken to strengthen our balance sheet, have placed Marathon in a strong position to achieve our growth and operating objectives in 2023,” he stated.

However, Bitcoin's price surge in the first month of 2023 prompted Marathon to sell 1,500 BTC of its holdings. The funds generated cover operating costs and are used for general corporate purposes. This is the first time since October 2020 that the company has decided to cash out some of its assets.

His total holdings are 11,418 BTC, of ​​which 8,090 BTC (around $190 million at current prices) are unrestricted. Additionally, Marathon ended the month with $133.8 million in unrestricted cash.

The company aims to optimize its mining performance throughout 2023 and install around 23 exahashes of computing power by the middle of the year.

“We remain confident in making Marathon one of the largest and most energy-efficient Bitcoin mining operations in the world,” the company announced.

The crypto miner, which entered the Nasdaq in 2013, saw its shares surge last month. Currently, MARA is trading at around $8, up 135% from early 2023.

Exposure to Compute North

AsCryptoPotatoreportedLast December, Marathon considered acquiring distressed data center Compute North Holdings. It hired professionals and discussed the matter with Guggenheim Partners and Weil Gotshal & Manges.

Compute North was a key hosting provider for Marathon, installing over 68,000 Bitcoin mining machines at its wind-powered facilities in Texas in the third quarter of 2022. Due to regulatory issues, 40,000 of these units remained offline.

The data centerfiledfor bankruptcy protection at the end of September, during Marathondiscloseda total commitment of over $80 million.

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