Marathon Digital bungles crypto impairment sums, will reissue financials

Published at: March 1, 2023

Bitcoin (BTC) miner Marathon Digitial will reissue a number of previous financial statements after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) pointed out some accounting errors the firm made.

According to a Feb. 27 SEC filing, Marathon will restate its unaudited Q1, Q2, and Q3 quarterly reports from both 2021 and 2022 in addition to its audited annual report from 2021.

Marathon noted that affected financial statements, related earnings releases and other financial communications during these periods “should not be relied upon.”

The issues highlighted by the SEC were Marathon’s method for calculating impairment on digital assets, as well as Marathon’s determination that it had acted as an agent while operating a Bitcoin mining pool rather than a principal.

A principal is an entity that has the legal authority for decisions, while an agent is an entity that can only act on behalf of a principal.

Marathon noted that by changing the determination of its role in operating the pool from an agent to a principal, revenues and cost of revenues will see minor increases but does not believe the change will impact its bottom line.

“The restatement of the Impacted Financial Statements is not expected to have any impact on total margin, operating income or net income in 2021 or in any of the interim periods in 2021 or 2022.”

As a result of the accounting issues, Marathon postponed its fourth-quarter 2022 earnings call which was set to take place on Feb. 28, and will postpone the publication of its corresponding financial results.

Today, we announced that we are cancelling our webcast and conference call for Q4 & FY 2022, initially scheduled for today at 4:30 p.m. ET, and are postponing the publication of our corresponding financial results. For more, please see this press release: https://t.co/UAryIr56aC

— Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) (@MarathonDH) February 28, 2023

Marathon intends to file its results for 2022 by Mar. 16, after notifying the SEC it would take up to 15 days to make the necessary corrections to the report which was previously due by Mar. 1.

Related: Robinhood subpoenaed by SEC over crypto listings and custody

The miner announced on Feb. 2 that it had sold 1,500 BTC throughout January, marking the first time it had sold Bitcoin since Oct. 1, 2020 as it looks to build up a “war-chest” of both cash and Bitcoin and ensure it can be flexible throughout 2023.

While 2022 proved to be a tough year for Bitcoin miners which led to the capitulation of many firms such as Core Scientific on Dec. 21 last year, an increasing BTC price and stabl electricity prices have helped the industry rebound strongly so far in 2023 with production and Hashrates generally up across the board.

Tags
Bitcoin
Regulation
Sec
Bitcoin Mining
Mining Pools
Income
Related Posts
Kosovar government halts crypto mining amid power crisis
The government of Kosovo has ceased crypto mining in the country owing to power constraints during the winter season. Kosovo's minister of Economy, Artane Rizvanolli, has decided to stop crypto mining following a recommendation from the Technical Committee on "Emergency Measures for Energy Supply," according to a report by local outlet Gazeta Express. The report notes that the government made the decision after Kosovo's power supply fell below the stipulated level, and it began to impose electricity cuts during peak usage periods. According to Rizvanolli, the government decided to establish a technical committee to evaluate emergency energy supply strategies in …
Bitcoin / Jan. 4, 2022
Kazakh ministry halts illegal crypto mining operations
The Kazakh Ministry of Energy announced that it has discovered and terminated 13 cryptocurrency mining operations. The government executed the shutdown as part of its efforts to regulate the Bitcoin (BTC) mining sector, which has grown increasingly popular in recent years. As per the official statement, the miners were using a lot of energy, with a total power consumption of 202 megawatts. According to the Kazakhstan government, efforts to identify and disconnect mining farms from the electrical networks will continue. Following the discovery of illicit mining operations, authorized bodies will take operational and investigatory actions. As the planet's second-largest Bitcoin …
Bitcoin / Feb. 22, 2022
Go green or die? Bitcoin miners aim for carbon neutrality by mining near data centers
Bitcoin (BTC) mining has always been a controversial topic. But, Bitcoin’s proof-of-work (PoW) model has reached new levels of concern as senior decision-makers and investors pay closer attention to environmental, social and governance factors. As such, many crypto miners are highlighting environmentally friendly practices by acquiring carbon offsets. Yet, some would argue that this isn’t enough to guarantee green Bitcoin mining. Other risk factors may also be involved with carbon credits. For instance, Kevin O’Leary — the Canadian entrepreneur better known as “Mr. Wonderful” for his role on Shark Tank — told Cointelegraph that he typically indexes public mining companies …
Bitcoin / May 10, 2022
Bitcoin miners sell their hodlings, and ASIC prices keep dropping — What’s next for the industry?
Crypto companies are going belly up left and right, and Bitcoin mining companies also appear to be taking on water faster than they can bail. In mid-June, Compass Mining CEO Whit Gibbs and chief financial officer Jodie Fisher abruptly resigned after allegations that the Bitcoin mining hardware and hosting company had failed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in overdue electricity bills to Dynamics Mining, a facility provider for Compass. Bloomberg recently reported that many industrial-size Bitcoin miners took on a significant amount of debt by leveraging their equipment and BTC as collateral for loans to either acquire additional …
Blockchain / July 7, 2022
British Columbia to halt new power connections for crypto miners
A state-owned electric utility provider in the Canadian province of British Columbia is set to halt all new electricity-connection requests from cryptocurrency miners for a period of 18 months. The British Columbia government made the announcement in a statement on Dec. 21 stating that the pause will allow the government and BC Hydro to develop a permanent framework that can better balance the needs of crypto miners and both its residents and businesses in the region. Josie Osborne, Minister of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation said that the move was made to preserve the clean energy it provides for …
Adoption / Dec. 22, 2022