Marathon Reports Record $835K Quarterly Mining Revenue, Increased Bitcoin Holdings

Las Vegas-based Marathon Patent Group Thursday reported a record $835,184 in total quarterly bitcoin mining revenue for the September period, a 160% increase from the same period last year.

• Marathon isn’t done growing. With the price of bitcoin having risen 82% since May, the firm reportedly has invested $72 million in the same time period to continue to expand its mining operations, although it did not report its current hash power capacity. 
• During Q3, the company purchased more than 20,000 new mining ASICs.
• Marathon is also holding more bitcoin than ever before.
• The value of bitcoins held by the firm has more than quadrupled since the previous quarter, reaching $450,000 at the end of Q3. Bitcoin appreciated 17% in Q3 ending the period at $10,600.
• “In all previous quarters, we only produced enough BTC that needed to be sold to cover the cost of our operations,” a Marathon spokesperson told CoinDesk via email. But because the firm no longer needs to cover operating costs by selling newly minted bitcoins, the company has started to simply hold the assets.
• The company reported a Q3 net loss of $1.99 million, or 6 cents a share, compared with the year-ago loss of $754,407, or 12 cents. A surge in the number of shares outstanding to 31.5 million from 6.37 million, accounts for the halving of the per share loss despite the large increase in the dollar figure loss.
• Marathon shares dipped 4% at last check following the earnings release, trading hands at $2.29. So far this year, the shares have risen 155%.

Update (Nov. 12, 1:19 UTC): This article has been updated for accuracy regarding the total number of mining machines purchased during Q3.