Bitcoin miner Marathon closes 2022 with $103.7 million cash after paying down debt

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital said that it paid down its revolver borrowings last month, freeing up bitcoin held as collateral and bringing its unrestricted holdings from 4,200 to 7,815 BTC.

At the end of a difficult year for the mining industry, the company held $103.7 million unrestricted in cash. Total bitcoin holdings were 12,232 BTC.

“Given the macroeconomic uncertainty heading into 2023, we decided to fully pay down outstanding balances under our revolving credit agreement,” Marathon CEO Fred Thiel said in a statement Thursday. Its revolver borrowings totaled $30 million as of Nov. 30.

Mining companies had faced a liquidity crunch after months of operating at depressed margins, and many in the sector have strived to reduce their leverage. Stronghold this week reached a deal to convert $17.9 million of debt into equity and Core Scientific filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with a strategy to turn most of its debt into equity.

Hash rate

Marathon closed out the year with a hash rate of 7 EH/s, which it still expects to grow to 23 EH/s by mid-2023.

The company began an immersion-cooled pilot project in November. Its initial findings suggest it could reduce capital expenditure on servers by approximately 10% versus traditional air-cooled setups and almost 7% compared to single-phase immersion systems, according to the statement.

“While it remains to be seen if such improvements in performance can be consistently replicated and implemented at scale, the Company is encouraged by these preliminary results and their ability to potentially increase Marathon’s competitive advantages,” the company said.

In December, Marathon expanded an agreement with hosting provider Applied Digital to include 12,000 machines set to come online next month, pending regulatory approval to energize.

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