Mara Holdings, a Bitcoin mining company, has reported that it nearly tripled its Bitcoin holdings over the past year, as shown in its recent first quarter results. However, there’s a downside—Bitcoin production has actually decreased, and total revenues fell short of Wall Street’s expectations for this quarter.
Previously known as Marathon Digital, Mara’s Bitcoin holdings increased to 47,531 BTC, marking a 175% rise from the 17,320 BTC recorded at the end of the first quarter of 2024.
Mara Holdings Approaches $500 Million from Bitcoin Gains
Mara is now the second-largest holder of Bitcoin among publicly traded companies, according to Coingecko data. MicroStrategy (MSTR) remains in the lead with 555,450 Bitcoins.
The total Bitcoin holdings are valued at about $4.9 billion, based on Bitcoin’s current price. Notably, Bitcoin saw a 4.86% increase in price over the last 24 hours.
Despite the growth in holdings, Mara’s production dropped by 19% compared to the same quarter last year, resulting in 2,286 Bitcoins mined. This decline is partly attributed to the recent Bitcoin Halving event, which decreased mining rewards to 3.125 BTC per block.
Mara’s reported revenues missed analyst expectations by 0.35%. Over the last four quarters, the company has only exceeded revenue projections once, according to Zacks research.
Interestingly, even with the mixed results, Mara’s share price rose by 7.2% on May 8, only to dip nearly 2% in after-hours trading, as indicated by Google Finance data.
Similar Challenges for Other Bitcoin Miners
Riot Platforms, another Bitcoin mining company, is facing comparable issues, detailing in their recent financial report that the average cost to mine Bitcoin in the quarter was $43,808—almost 90% higher than the $23,034 from the previous year. However, Riot managed to surpass its revenue consensus estimate by 1%, reaching $159.8 million.
Several other Bitcoin mining firms also struggled to meet Wall Street’s revenue expectations. Clean Spark, for example, missed its targets by 0.58%, posting quarterly revenue of $181.71 million.
Core Scientific fell short of analyst forecasts by 8.11%, reporting a revenue of $179.3 million in the first quarter of 2024.
HUT 8 faced the largest discrepancy among Bitcoin miners, missing Wall Street’s expectations by 35%. They reported first-quarter revenue of only $21 million, whereas projections were significantly higher at $35 million.
This article is not intended as investment advice. All trading and investment decisions carry risks, and readers should conduct their own research.
