"Marathon's Bitcoin Mining Surges Despite Halving"

Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings reported record revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter of 2024, surpassing analysts' expectations despite the challenges posed by the Bitcoin halving event in 2023. The Florida-based company posted a 37% increase in revenue, reaching $214.4 million, compared to $156.8 million in the same period last year. This growth was driven by a 132% rise in the average price of Bitcoin mined.

The company's net income for the quarter grew by 248%, totaling $528.3 million, compared to $151.8 million in the same period last year. While Bitcoin's price increase contributed a hefty $119.9 million to the total, the company still faced a $64.2 million drop in revenue due to decreased Bitcoin production, which was heavily impacted by the April halving event.

The Bitcoin halving effectively slashed the reward miners receive from solving the computational puzzle inherent in proof-of-work networks by 50%, from 6.250 BTC to just 3.125 BTC per block. As a result, Marathon mined 2,492 BTC in Q4 2024, down 27% from the 3,490 BTC produced in the same quarter in 2023. However, despite the decline in production, Marathon was able to increase its total blocks won by 25%, achieving 703 blocks in Q4 2024 compared to 562 in Q4 2023.

Earnings per share also far exceeded expectations, coming in at $1.24, a significant uplift compared to analysts' forecast of a loss of $0.32 per share. The EPS result marked a significant earnings surprise, with Marathon's stock climbing by 7.41% to $13.38 in after-hours trading.

Marathon's hashrate grew 115% to 53.2 EH/s in Q4 2024, up from 24.7 EH/s in Q4 2023, driven by strategic acquisitions and energy capacity expansion. Energy hashrates measure the computational power used in mining, typically in exahashes per