Marathon cuts June Bitcoin production to 979 BTC

Mining company Marathon Digital Holdings mined 979 BTC in June. The figure collapsed by 21% relative to May’s record, but year-over-year rose by 599%.

CEO of the firm Fred Thiel explained the drop in production by weather conditions in Texas and a sharp decline in the share of revenue coming from fees — 5.1% versus 11.8% in the previous month.

“The emergence Ordinals significantly increased transaction fees in May, and although network load decreased in June, we view the latest trends as a sign of a positive trajectory for the mining economy,” said Marathon’s CEO.

In June the company sold 700 BTC and by the end of the month its reserves stood at 12,538 BTC. Cash and cash equivalents on the balance sheet amounted to $113.7 million.

During the month Marathon connected about 18,500 new Bitcoin miners to the network and decommissioned around 3,000 older-model units. The deployed fleet grew to about 149,900 units.

As a result, the company’s operational hash rate rose 16% to 17.7 EH/s. With uninstalled hardware, capacity could theoretically reach 21.8 EH/s.

The company expects that after the deployment of all previously purchased miners, about 66% of the hash rate will be generated by Antminer S19 XP from Bitmain. The energy efficiency of these miners is roughly 30% higher than that of devices from the previous generation.

At the end of June, the Marathon and Zero Two joint venture began operations for Bitcoin mining in Abu Dhabi (UAE). It is expected that the project will reach a 7 EH/s target by year-end. The company does not include this hash rate in its forecast for reaching 23 EH/s by that date, noted Thiel.

Following the release of the operational report, Marathon shares rose 3.3% in premarket trading and are valued at about $16. Over the last 30 days, the stock has risen 62.6% in line with other Bitcoin companies.

As noted, in the first quarter Marathon mined 2,195 BTC, while the full-year 2022 total was 4,144 BTC.