Marathon Digital's bitcoin production barely budges in December

Marathon Digital ( NASDAQ: MARA ) stock slid 4.3% in Thursday morning trading as the company mined 475 bitcoins ( BTC-USD ) in December, rising slightly from the 472 bitcoins produced in the prior month . The BTC miner wrapped up last year on a relatively strong note, though, having produced 4,144 BTC in 2022 compared with 3,197 in 2021. It also managed to double its hash rate to 7.0 exahashes per second Y/Y in 2022, said CEO and Chairman Fred Thiel, with most of that mining capacity now located at the King Mountain wind farm in West Texas. As of January 1, its operating mining fleet consisted of ~69K active miners. An additional 2.1 EH/s is pending energization after 1,000 more S19 XPs were installed in Texas during December. It's mid-2023 hash rate target of 23 EH/s still stands. In an effort to bolster its liquidity position, "we decided to fully pay down outstanding balances under our revolving credit agreement" amid increased macroeconomic uncertainty, Thiel said. Specifically, MARA reduced revolver borrowings from $30M as of November 30 to $0 as of December 31. That move ultimately boosted the company's bitcoin ( BTC-USD ) holdings to 7,815 as of December 31, with a fair market value of ~$129.3M, from 4,200 as of November 30. MARA finished the year with $103.7M in unrestricted cash on hand. Previously, (Dec. 6) Marathon Digital bitcoin output in November dropped as King Mountain operations curtailed .