Bitcoin
miner
Marathon
Digital
(MARA)
beat
Wall
Street’s
fourth-quarter
sales
expectations,
mainly
due
to
a
higher
bitcoin
(BTC)
price
during
the
period.
The
miner
reported
fourth-quarter
sales
of
$156.8
million,
beating
the
average
analyst
estimate
of
$148.8
million,
according
to
FactSet
data.
The
company
said
the
quarter’s
net
loss
would’ve
been
$0.02
per
share,
excluding
the
effect
of
the
new
accounting
rules.
Analysts
estimated
earnings
per
share
of
$0.04.
Marathon
said
it
sold
56%
of
the
bitcoin
it
produced
during
the
quarter
to
fund
operating
costs.
Read
more:
Bitcoin
Miner
Marathon’s
Shares
Outperform
Peers
Ahead
of
Possible
‘Strong’
Earnings
Report
The
company
also
reiterated
its
outlook
to
bring
mining
power
to
about
35
to
37
exahash
per
second
(EH/s)
in
2024
and
50
EH/s
by
the
end
of
2025.
“With
orders
for
22
exahash
of
miners
already
placed
and
options
to
add
an
additional
23
exahash
to
these
orders,
we
believe
there
may
be
opportunities
to
accelerate
our
growth
targets,”
the
company
said
in
the
statement.
Separately,
Marathon
announced
Wednesday
that
it
will
start
a
new
Bitcoin
layer-2
network
called
Anduro.
The
new
network
will
allow
for
the
creation
of
multiple
sidechains
to
foster
innovation
within
the
Bitcoin
ecosystem,
the
company
said
in
the
statement.
The
miner
is
already
developing
the
first
two
sidechains,
one
that
will
serve
the
Ordinals
community
–
essentially,
NFTs
on
Bitcoin
–
while
the
other
will
be
an
Ethereum-compatible
chain
for
asset
tokenization.
The
move
comes
after
Marathon
recently
rolled
out
a
new
business
that
is
also
aimed
at
helping
the
Bitcoin
ecosystem.
It
started
“Slipstream,”
which
will
make
the
confirmation
of
large
or
“non-standard”
bitcoin
transactions
easier,
cutting
out
the
delay
and
complications
users
often
face.
The
shares
of
the
miner
fell
more
than
7%
in
the
post-market
trading,
after
outperforming
its
peers
on
Wednesday
during
the
normal
trading
session.
Bitcoin’s
price
whipsawed
today,
erasing
some
of
the
earlier
gains,
still
6%
higher,
at
around
$60,530.
The
broader
CoinDesk
20
Index
added
3.6%,
by
comparison.