MARA misses Q3 revenue expectations, increases reserves to 26,747 BTC

Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings, formerly known as Marathon Digital, reported third-quarter earnings results Tuesday afternoon.

The largest publicly traded miner by market cap ($7.4 billion) reported quarterly losses of $0.34 per share, which is in line with the consensus estimate according to MarketWatch data. The company reported third-quarter sales of $131.6 million, which missed estimates of $151.6 million. This was an improvement from the second quarter when the company reported a net loss of $199.7 million .

MARA holds 26,747 bitcoin on its balance sheet, as of Oct. 31. The company mined 2,070 BTC and purchased 6,210 BTC, of which 4,144 were acquired using proceeds from a $300 million offering of convertible senior notes at an average price of $59,500 per BTC. 

Last week, MARA said it mined 717 bitcoin in October, up 2% month-over-month, and its energized hash rate rose to 40.2 EH/s during the month. On Monday, the company announced the acquisition of two Ohio sites totaling 222 megawatts of capacity for $270/kW.

Bitcoin mining difficulty hit an all-time high of more than 100 trillion on Nov. 5, the latest warning sign for the industry following April's bitcoin halving. Mining difficulty is a relative measure and is not expressed in specific units. It indicates how hard it is to mine a new block compared to the easiest it could ever be. 

MARA CEO Fred Thiel recently likened the current AI environment to the early 2000s internet boom. "Thiel suggested successful bitcoin miners will increasingly integrate AI into their operations, leveraging low-cost energy and becoming energy partners to AI data centers and hyper scalers — in the long term," The Block previously reported .

MARA's stock has sharply risen 42% over the past five sessions amid the post-election euphoria . The stock closed Tuesday at $25.23 per share, up 10% in the year-to-date period, according to Yahoo Finance.