MARA, formerly known as Marathon Digital Holdings, reported a big 17% jump in Bitcoin (BTC) production for July, according to their latest update. This increase, along with other strategies, has helped MARA’s stock go up by 3%. Previously, the stock dropped more than 17% due to a U.S. stock market crash and recession worries.
In July, MARA successfully completed a hash rate recovery at its Ellendale facility, which is hosted by Applied Digital. This effort led to a 27% rise in block wins from the previous month. The company produced 692 BTC in July, up from 591 BTC in June. MARA’s average operational hash rate also increased by 5% to 27.5 exahashes per second (EH/s).
Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO, highlighted the company’s strong mining strategy despite the fluctuating BTC price. He said, “We will continue to mine aggressively while global hash rate decreases due to a lower BTC price and use all available tools to maximize production.”
SEE ALSO: RippleX Plans XRPL Testnet Reset to Enhance Key Features
MARA is also deploying its own technology to boost mining efficiency. The company is converting part of its Granbury site from air-cooled to immersion containers. Although this will temporarily lower the site’s hash rate, it is expected to improve performance in the long run. The first 18 immersion containers are expected to be operational in August, with the full deployment set for the end of the year. Thiel is confident that the company will achieve its 2024 hash rate goal of 50 EH/s.
In July, MARA added nearly 5,000 new miners and moved about 10,000 existing miners as part of its fleet optimization. The company’s current fleet consists of around 245,000 Bitcoin miners with a production capability of 31.8 EH/s, and it reached a peak hash rate of 30.1 EH/s during the month.
Hash Rate Recovery Boosts Production
As of July 31, 2024, MARA reported holding 20,818 unrestricted BTC and did not sell any BTC in July, sticking to its HODL strategy, which means it keeps all mined BTC and makes occasional strategic purchases. Financially, MARA is strong, with $242.1 million in cash and cash equivalents, of which $230.1 million is unrestricted. When adding the value of its BTC holdings, MARA’s total unrestricted cash and BTC value reached $1,587.1 million.
These positive financial results led to a 3.03% increase in MARA’s stock, which was trading at $17.46 on August 6, 2024. However, the stock later declined due to geopolitical tensions and market uncertainty.
SEE ALSO: Breaking: Ronin Bridge Hacked, $12M in Ethereum and USDC Stolen
