Bitcoin mined by Marathon Digital in September more than triples from last year

By Tomi Kilgore

Marathon Digital's share of bitcoin network's available miner rewards rises to a record 4.3%

Shares of Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. surged Wednesday after the bitcoin miner said the bitcoin mined in September was more than triple that of a year ago, and up 16% from the month before.

"The increase in bitcoin production from August was due to improved uptime and decreased curtailment activity in Texas," said Chief Executive Fred Thiel. "In September, our share of the bitcoin network's available miner rewards was a record 4.3%, up from 3.7% last month and the previous record of 4.1% in July 2023."

Marathon Digital's stock (MARA) rose 3.3% in premarket trading. On Tuesday, the stock had tumbled 14.4% to $7.30, the lowest close since March 28.

Meanwhile, bitcoin (BTCUSD) rose 0.6% early Wednesday toward a five-week high.

The company said it produced 1,242 bitcoin in September, up 16% from August and a 245% increase for a year ago.

"By upgrading equipment, leveraging our proprietary firmware, and making other technical improvements, we increased our U.S. average operational hash rate 20% month-over-month to 15.8 exahashes," Thiel said.

Marathon said it sold 800 bitcoin in September, to support monthly operations, manage its treasury and for general corporate purposes.

That brings the total unrestricted bitcoin holdings to 13,726 as of Sept. 30, which the company valued at about $370 million. With $101.2 million in cash and cash equivalents, the company said it had $471.2 million in restricted cash and bitcoin at the end of September.

Marathon Digital's stock has tumbled 52.4% over the past three months, while bitcoin has lost 11.4% and the S&P 500 index SPX has declined 5.1%.

-Tomi Kilgore

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-04-23 0905ET

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.