Marathon Digital Holdings reported a record net income of $337.2 million in 2024’s first quarter.

The firm’s quarterly net income, published in its May 9 earnings report, represents 184% year-over-year growth from $118.7 million in the first quarter of 2023.

EPS for the quarter stood at $1.26 per diluted share

The company reported record revenues of $165.2 million in the first quarter of 2024, representing 223% year-over-year growth from $51.1 million.

Marathon holds $1.6 billion in combined unrestricted cash, cash equivalents, and Bitcoin as of March 31.

Mining output

Marathon also described increased Bitcoin output and infrastructure growth.

The company produced 2,811 BTC during the first quarter, worth $176 million at current market prices. In the first quarter of 2023, it produced 2,195 BTC, marking 28% year-over-year growth.

The company reported an energized hash rate of 27.8 exahashes per second (EH/s), up 142% from 11.5 EH/s in the first quarter of 2023.

Marathon aims to achieve 50 EH/s, or 100% growth in hash rate, by the end of 2024.

Marathon also closed several data center acquisitions, doubling its digital asset compute capacity to 1.1 gigawatts. More than half of the full amount exists on sites that the company directly owns or operates.

Marathon enters S&P rankings

Marathon’s latest results come shortly after the firm’s addition to the S&P SmallCap 600. Marathon stock (MARA) gained 18% alongside the development on May 6.

The firm’s latest earnings report has not coincided with such a dramatic price change. MARA was down 2.19% on May 9 but up 1.22% after hours following its earnings release.

Despite minor losses, Marathon Digital Holdings remains the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining firm, with a market cap of $5.36 billion.

Marathon’s competitors have also published recent reports. Core Scientific reported $210.7 million in net income and 2,825 BTC mined in the first quarter on May 9. Stronghold reported increased earnings but a low valuation and possible sale on May 2. Cleanspark reported monthly data on May 3.

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Core Scientific reported a $210.7 million net income for the first quarter on May 8.

The change represents an increase of $211.1 million from the first quarter of 2023, when the company reported a net loss of $0.4 million.

The company also reported $179.3 million in first-quarter revenue, including $150 million from crypto mining and $29.3 million from hosting.

The change in total revenue marks an increase of $58.6 million compared to the first quarter of 2023 when the company reported revenue of $120.6 million.

Core Scientific reported $98.1 million in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, up from $50.4 million in the fourth quarter of 2023.

Mining output and power

Core Scientific also reported significant Bitcoin production. The firm earned 2,825 BTC through self-mining — more than any publicly traded Bitcoin mining firm in North America.

The company’s first-quarter BTC is worth $172.5 million at current prices.

The firm reported a hash rate of 25.5 exahashes per second (EH/s). The total hash rate includes 19.3 EH/s for self-mining, through which the company produces its own Bitcoin, plus 6.2 EH/s for hosting, through which it produces Bitcoin for its customers.

Core Scientific owned and managed about 745 megawatts of infrastructure, which it claims is greater than any other publicly traded Bitcoin miner in North America.

Additional revenue stream

Core Scientific is also exploring alternative revenue streams.

CEO Adam Sullivan said the firm is discussing with customers the conversion of over 500 megawatts to high-performance computing. By combining computing and Bitcoin mining, the firm will be active in “two very attractive markets,” Sullivan said.

A separate Financial Post report indicates that the company plans for its high-performance computing business to cater to artificial intelligence (AI) firms.

The conversion of the 500 megawatts of infrastructure could take three to four years, but the company will generate revenue as it brings on clients.

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India leads the world in crypto adoption, followed by Nigeria and Vietnam, according to a new Chainalysis report. Nonetheless, North America accounts for nearly a quarter of all value received by cryptocurrency exchanges, with the United States leading by far.

To calculate adoption, Chainalysis used web traffic data from 13 billion web visits to track five categories of activity, weighted by purchasing power parity per capita. That is, “if two countries received equal amounts of cryptocurrency at centralized services, the country with lower PPP per capita would rank ahead.” That will help determine where “everyday people are embracing crypto the most.”

Crypto adoption is down worldwide, with the exception of lower-middle income (LMI) countries, such as India, Nigeria and fifth-ranked Ukraine, the report found. Those countries, where 40% of the world’s population lives, have been the greatest crypto adopters since the second quarter of 2022, when world usage began to plummet:

“This could be extremely promising for crypto’s future prospects. LMI countries are often countries on the rise, with dynamic, growing industries and populations. […] If LMI countries are the future, then the data indicates that crypto is going to be a big part of that future.”

Central and Southern Asia and Oceania, Central, Northern and Western Europe, and North America group together as the top originators of transaction value received.

While North America was dominant on the crypto market by volume, there was a clear drop in institutional transaction volume beginning in April. The share of stablecoin in that volume also fell significantly, from 70.3% in February to 48.8% by June. The weighted volume of transactions in decentralized finance (DeFi) fell from over 75% in August 2022 to less than 50% in July 2023.

Central, Northern and Western Europe produced 17.6% of crypto value received, with the United Kingdom accounting for more than twice the volume of second-runner Germany. The U.K. ranked 14th in adoption worldwide.

Related: UK tops crypto activity in Central, Northern and Western Europe: Chainalysis

France led in DeFi growth, however. DeFi saw growth in Central and Southern Asia and Oceania, Eastern Europe and Central, Northern and Western Europe year-on-year in the 12 months ending in June 2023.

Central and Southern Asia and Oceania accounted for 19.3% of crypto value received by exchanges. First-place India led second-place Vietnam by approximately 100%.

Bans in China dragged down transaction volume in Eastern Asia, beginning in 2020. Nonetheless, China produced over $75 billion in value received by exchanges in the 12 months ending in June, with almost three-quarters of it being handled by centralized exchanges.

The top 10 countries in our 2023 Global Crypto Adoption Index spanned five continents, but Central & Southern Asia dominated the list. See the rest of the top 20 and gain more insights on global crypto usage here. pic.twitter.com/z6FOFvQgzf

— Chainalysis (@chainalysis) September 21, 2023

In the Middle East and North Africa, Turkey saw a large predominance in web traffic to NFT sites, and Saudi Arabia led the world in transaction growth, up 12%. Nigeria towers over other sub-Saharan countries by transaction volume. That region accounts for 2.3% of world volume. Bitcoin is most popular in that region, accounting for 9.3% of volume, compared to 4.2% in Eastern Asia.

In Latin America (where Chainalysis places Mexico and Puerto Rico), Argentina and Brazil are the top contributors to transaction volume. The report notes crypto’s role in protecting users against inflation in the region.

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