Marathon Digital: Bitcoin Miner Investors Should Look Elsewhere

SummaryMarathon Digital is the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner by market cap.The company utilizes a "asset light" hosting services approach to mining over a fully integrated model.One of MARA's large hosting partners just declared bankruptcy.Marathon Digital has a lot of debt and weaker production than peers.It has been an abysmal 11 months for Bitcoin (BTC-USD) miners. While the publicly traded companies have varying methods for scaling operations and treasury management, each of them have performed roughly in line with each other over the last year. Most of them are down anywhere from 80-90% since the early-November highs. Seeking AlphaThis is largely a testament to the vicious decline in profit margins that the companies have experienced since Bitcoin's decline from a little under $70k down to $19k. Given the increase to hash rate over the same time period, the result has been a miner profitability figure now challenging 24 month lows. BitInfoChartsEven if Bitcoin's price can recover, the publicly traded miners have a tough road ahead given the supply dynamics of mining in the future. Still, if one wants to speculate on Bitcoin's rise, the miners provide an incredible way to leverage that bet. While they've all performed about the same in crypto winter, I personally believe it's prudent to be selective when picking a miner for the next cycle.Marathon Digital Treasury and ProductionMarathon Digital (MARA) is the larg...