The company also reiterated its expectation to have 23 EH/s of mining capacity around the middle of 2023.

Marathon Digital (MARA) fully paid off $30 million in revolver loans during December, freeing up 3,615 bitcoin (BTC) that had been pledged as collateral, according to its monthly update.

The lender on the revolver was Silvergate Bank (SI), which this morning announced deposit withdrawals during Q4 of $8.1 billion as it continues to reel from the FTX collapse fallout. Silvergate shares are lower by 46% today.

The Marathon move is the latest in a series of similar actions from bitcoin miners to reduce their debt obligations through payments or restructurings as the bear market continues to take a toll on the industry.

Marathon’s unrestricted bitcoin holdings are now 7,815 (about $130 million), and total bitcoin holdings – after production of 475 bitcoin in December – are up to 12,232. Unrestricted bitcoin holdings on Nov. 9 (prior to the FTX collapse) had been just 1,950. Marathon has repeatedly hinted at its intentions to sell some of its mined bitcoin, but hasn’t yet done so.

Marathon stock was down 4.1% for the session at press time.
The company as of Jan. 1 had an operating mining fleet of 69,000 rigs with hashrate, or computing power, of 7 exahash/second (EH/s). Marathon continues to expect to have installed computing power of 23 EH/s sometime around the middle of 2023.

Turning back to Silvergate, the crypto lender had ties to crypto exchange FTX, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Nov. 11. To counter the deposit outflows in Q4, the bank this morning announced it sold off $5.2 billion of debt securities, resulting in a $718 million loss.

Silvergate had previously lent funds to Marathon through two different debt instruments. One is the revolving credit facility, which Marathon reduced from $30 million Nov. 30 to zero by year-end, that was initially signed in October 2021. The other is a term loan agreed to in August 2022. Marathon did not respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment as to how much of the term loan was outstanding at the end of 2022.

Marathon’s Vice President of Corporate Communications, Charlie Schumacher told CoinDesk in November the company had drawn about $100 million roughly equally from both debt instruments, meaning $50 million could still be outstanding with Silvergate.

Marathon’s plan initially, said Schumacher, had been to draw on the term loan to pay down the credit line, but the FTX collapse and resulting market uncertainty forced a rethink, with the company instead deciding it a better idea to deleverage its balance sheet.

The post Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital Pays Off Silvergate Revolving Credit appeared first on Crypto Insider.

The company had previously faced issues of mining rigs installed, but with no energy service.

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) said it energized about 25,000 previously installed miners in August, adding about 2.5 exahash per second (EH/s) in computing power and bringing total hashrate to roughly 3.2 EH/s.

The company produced 184 bitcoin (BTC) in August, bringing the year-to-date total to 2,222. Month-end bitcoin holdings rose to 10,311 with a fair market value of $206.7 million. No coins were sold during the month.

Marathon sees about 65,000 additional miners, or 6.9 EH/s of capacity, being brought online over the next 90 days.

Energization delays along with weather-related issues had caused bitcoin mining production to fall to 707 in the second quarter from 1,259 in the previous three months.

Marathon shares fell 2.3% today alongside a slide in the price of bitcoin to below $19,000. The stock’s little-changed in after hours action.

The post Marathon Digital Energized 25,000 Miners in August, Produced 184 Bitcoins appeared first on Crypto Insider.

Marathon Digital and Riot Blockchain are both down by more than 10% before US markets open.

Cryptocurrency-related stocks are trading significantly lower in Friday’s pre-market session as bitcoin begins to lose bullish momentum.

Marathon Digital (MARA) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT) are leading the plunge in crypto stocks today, with both making double-digit percentage moves to the downside.

Coinbase (COIN), meanwhile, is trading at $77.81, a 6.91% decline from Thursday’s close of $85.44. MicroStrategy (MSTR), which is one of the largest holders of bitcoin, has seen its stock drop to $297.68, 8.23% lower than yesterday’s close.

The corrective nature of this morning’s session is reflected across the wider crypto market and equities, with the Nasdaq100 and S&P500 indices trading 0.82% and 0.68% lower respectively.

Friday’s market lull comes after strong performance in equities since July 17, with the Nasdaq rising by 20.88% during that time.

Coinbase also performed particularly well this month, rising by 57.15% in spite of today’s drop to $77.81.

The post Crypto Stocks Slide in Pre-Market Trading as Bitcoin Slumps to $21.6K appeared first on Crypto Insider.