According to CoinDesk, shares of bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) fell by as much as 8% in post-market trading on Thursday after the company's second-quarter revenue failed to meet Wall Street's expectations. The shares have since recovered some of their losses.

Marathon reported a revenue of $145.1 million, falling short of the $157.9 million estimate provided by FactSet data. The company's sales were negatively impacted in the second quarter due to several operational challenges, including unexpected equipment failures and transmission line maintenance at the Ellendale site operated by Applied Digital. Additionally, an increased global hash rate and the April halving event further weighed on the mining sector, according to the company's earnings release.

Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon, stated, "During the second quarter of 2024, our BTC production was impacted by unexpected equipment failures and transmission line maintenance at the Ellendale site operated by Applied Digital, increased global hash rate, and the April halving event." Despite these challenges, Marathon has since resolved the issues and achieved an all-time high mining power of 31.5 exahash per second (EH/s) in the second quarter.

The company also reported that its second-quarter adjusted EBITDA swung to a loss of $85.1 million from a gain of $35.8 million in the previous year. This was mainly due to unfavorable fair value adjustments of its digital assets and a lower amount of BTC mined during the quarter. Despite these setbacks, Marathon remains optimistic about reaching a hashrate of 50 EH/s by the end of the year and plans to further grow it next year.

To fund its operating costs, Marathon sold 51% of the bitcoin it mined in the second quarter. However, the company recently announced that it purchased $100 million worth of bitcoin in the open market and has re-adopted a strategy to fully hold all BTC on its balance sheet. Marathon now holds more than 20,000 BTC.

Thiel added, "During the quarter, we organized the internal structure of the business to better align with our growth opportunities, sharpen our strategic focus, bolster accountability, and accelerate our speed and agility as we scale."