2024年2月26日

证券交易委员会

公司融资部门

100东路

华盛顿特区20549-4561

尊敬的Walsh女士和Krikorian先生：

这封信构成了Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc.（以下简称"公司"）对您于2024年2月23日寄给公司首席财务(临时代码)官的评论信（以下简称"信函"）以及涉及公司2022年12月31日结束的年度10-K报告（以下简称"2022 10-K"）和公司2023年9月30日结束的季度10-Q报告（以下简称"2023 10-Q"）的回应。除非另有说明，在此处使用的大写字母首字母缩写术语在2022年10-K和/或2023年10-Q中已有定义。为方便起见，我们已复制每一条评论逐字逐句从您的信中，我们注意到与您的回应相关的内容，您的针对“来自合同客户的收入”的注释4（第11页）的提到。请修订说明，以说明如果为真，您还向交易请求者提供这些服务，而不仅仅是比特币网络。

第10-Q表格，截至2023年9月30日的季度报告

基本报表注释

注意事项4-来自与客户的合同收入，第11页。

In connection with responding to the Staff’s comments, the Company acknowledges that (i) it is responsible for the adequacy and accuracy of the disclosure in its filing; (ii) Staff comments or changes to disclosure in response to Staff comments do not foreclose the Commission from taking any action with respect to the filing; and (iii) it may not assert Staff comments as a defense in any proceeding initiated by the Commission or any person under the federal securities laws of the United States.

We hope you find that these responses adequately address the Staff’s questions, but please contact the undersigned at salman.khan@mara.com and Zabi Nowaid, Esq., at zabi.nowaid@mara.com, if you have any further questions or would like to discuss our responses.

Exhibit

NOTE 3 – REVENUES

The Company recognizes revenue in accordance with ASC 606. The core principle of the revenue standard is that an entity should recognize revenue to depict the transfer of promised goods or services to customers in an amount that reflects the consideration to which the Company expects to be entitled in exchange for those goods or services. The following five steps are applied to achieve that core principle:

In order to identify the performance obligations in a contract with a customer, an entity must assess the promised goods or services in the contract and identify each promised good or service that is distinct. A performance obligation meets ASC 606’s definition of a “distinct” good or service (or bundle of goods or services) if both of the following criteria are met:

If a good or service is not distinct, the good or service is combined with other promised goods or services until a bundle of goods or services is identified that is distinct.

The transaction price is the amount of consideration to which an entity expects to be entitled in exchange for transferring promised goods or services to a customer. The consideration promised in a contract with a customer may include fixed amounts, variable amounts, or both. When determining the transaction price, an entity must consider the effects of all of the following:

Variable consideration is included in the transaction price only to the extent that it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of cumulative revenue recognized under the accounting contract will not occur when the uncertainty associated with the variable consideration is subsequently resolved.

The transaction price is allocated to each performance obligation on a relative standalone selling price basis.

The transaction price allocated to each performance obligation is recognized when that performance obligation is satisfied, at a point in time or over time, as appropriate.

Application of the five-step model to the Company’s mining operations

The Company’s ongoing major or central operation is to provide bitcoin transaction verification services to the transaction requestor, in addition to the bitcoin network through a Company-operated mining pool as the operator (“Operator”) (such activity, “mining”) and to provide a service of performing hash calculations to third-party pool operators alongside collectives of third-party bitcoin miners (such collectives, “mining pools”) as a participant (“Participant”).

The following table presents the Company’s revenues disaggregated for those arrangements in which the Company is the Operator and Participant:

Operator

As Operator, the Company provides transaction verification services to the transaction requestor, in addition to the bitcoin network. Transaction verification services are an output of the Company’s ordinary activities; therefore, the Company views the transaction requestor as a customer and recognizes the transaction fees as revenue from contracts with customers under ASC 606. The bitcoin network is not an entity such that it may not meet the definition of a customer; however, the Company has concluded that it is appropriate to apply ASC 606 by analogy to block rewards earned from the bitcoin network. The Company is currently entitled to the block reward of 6.25 bitcoin from the bitcoin network upon each successful validation of a block. The Company is also entitled to the transaction fees paid by the transaction requester payable in bitcoin for each successful validation of a block. The Company assessed the following factors in the determination of the inception and duration of each individual contract to validate a block and satisfaction of its performance obligation as follows:

From September 2021 until May 2022, the Company engaged unrelated third-party mining enterprises (“pool participants”) to contribute hash calculations, and in exchange, remitted transaction fees and block rewards to pool participants on a pro rata basis according to each respective pool participant’s contributed hash calculations. The MaraPool wallet (owned by the Company as Operator) is recorded on the distributed ledger as the winner of proof of work block rewards and assignee of all validations and, therefore, the transaction verifier of record. The pool participants entered into contracts with the Company as Operator; they did not directly enter into contracts with the network or the requester and were not known verifiers of the transactions assigned to the pool. As Operator, the Company delegated mining work to the pool participants utilizing software that algorithmically assigned work to each individual miner. By virtue of its selection and operation of the software, the Company as Operator controlled delegation of work to the pool participants. This indicated that the Company directed the mining pool participants to contribute their hash calculations to solve in areas that the Company designated. Therefore, the Company determined that it controlled the service of providing transaction verification services to the network and requester. Accordingly, the Company recorded all of the transaction fees and block rewards earned from transactions assigned to MaraPool as revenue, and the portion of the transaction fees and block rewards remitted to MaraPool participants as cost of revenues.

In accordance with ASC 606-10-32-21, the Company measures the estimated fair value of the non-cash consideration (block reward and transaction fees) at contract inception, which is at the time the performance obligation to the requester and the network is fulfilled by successfully validating a block. The Company measures the non-cash consideration which is fixed as of the inception of each individual contract using the quoted spot rate for bitcoin determined using the Company’s primary trading platform for bitcoin at the time the Company successfully validates a block.

Expenses associated with providing bitcoin transaction verification services, such as hosting fees, electricity costs, and related fees are recorded as cost of revenues. Depreciation on digital asset mining equipment is also recorded as a component of cost of revenues.

Participant

The Company participates in third-party operated mining pools. When the Company is a Participant in a third-party operated mining pool, the Company provides a service to perform hash calculations to the third-party pool operators. The Company considers the third-party mining pool operators to be its customers under Topic 606. Contract inception and our enforceable right to consideration begins when we commence providing hash calculation services to the mining pool operators. Each party to the contract has the unilateral right to terminate the contract at any time without any compensation to the other party for such termination. As such, the duration of a contract is less than a day and may be continuously renewed multiple times throughout the day. The implied renewal option is not a material right because there are no upfront or incremental fees in the initial contract and the terms, conditions, and compensation amount for the renewal options are at the then market rates.

The Company is entitled to non-cash compensation based on the pool operator’s payout model. The payout methodologies differ depending on the type of third-party operated mining pool. Full-Pay-Per-Share (“FPPS”) pools pay block rewards and transaction fees, less mining pool fees and Pay-Per-Share (“PPS”) pools pay block rewards less mining pool fees but no transaction fees. For FPPS and PPS pools, the Company is entitled to non-cash consideration even if a block is not successfully validated by the mining pool operators.

The Company primarily participated in mining pools that used the FPPS payout method for the year ended December 31, 2023. The Company is entitled to compensation once it begins to perform hash calculations for the pool operator in accordance with the operator’s specifications over a 24-hour period beginning mid-night UTC and ending 23:59:59 on a daily basis. We recognize non-cash consideration for each day hash calculation is provided to the pool operator and since contract inception also begins when we commence providing hash calculations, contract inception is the same day that we commence providing hash calculations to the pool operator. The non-cash consideration that we are entitled to for providing hash calculations to the pool operator under the FPPS payout method is made up of block rewards and transaction fees less pool operator expenses determined as follows:

The above non-cash consideration is variable in accordance with paragraphs ASC 606-10-32-5 to 606-10-32-7, since the amount of block reward earned depends on the amount of hash calculations we perform; the amount of transaction fees we are entitled to depends on the actual Bitcoin Network transaction fees over the same 24-hour period; and the operator fees for the same 24-hour period are variable since it is determined based on the total block rewards and transaction fees in accordance with the pool operator’s agreement. While the non-cash consideration is variable, the payout is settled the next day on a daily basis and the Company has the ability to estimate the variable consideration with reasonable certainty, without the risk of significant revenue reversal because it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of revenue recognized from the contract will not occur when the uncertainty is subsequently resolved.

The Company measures the non-cash consideration based on the simple average daily spot rate of bitcoin determined using the Company’s primary trading platform for bitcoin over a 24-hour period beginning mid-night UTC and ending 23:59:59 on the date of contract inception (when we commence performance of hash calculations) which is the same day that control of the contracted service (hash calculations) is transferred to the pool operator.

We also participate in PPS pools that provide non-cash considerations similar to the FPPS pools except PPS pools did not include transaction fees, therefore, the non-cash consideration received by the Company was made up of block rewards less mining pool fees. The Company measured the non-cash consideration from PPS pool operators consistent with FPPS rewards as described above with the exception of transaction fees which PPS pools do not include.

While the Company primarily participated in FPPS and PPS pools, the Company also participated to a lesser extent in third-party mining pools that pay rewards only when the pool successfully validates a block. For these pools, the Company only earns a reward when the third-party pool successfully mines a block and its reward is the fractional share of the successfully mined block and transaction fees based on the proportion of hash calculations the Company performed for the mining pool operator to the total hash calculations performed by all mining pool participants in validating the block during the 24-hour period beginning at midnight UTC and ending 11:59:59 daily. Contract inception and our enforceable right to consideration begins when the Company commences the performance of hash calculations for the mining pool operator. The non-cash consideration is variable in accordance with paragraphs ASC 606-10-32-5 to 606-10-32-7 as it depends on whether the third-party mining pool successfully validates a block during each 24-hour period. However, as such amounts are determined and settled by the pool operator within one day of completing the contracts over the 24-hour period, the Company has the ability to estimate the variable consideration with reasonable certainty, without the risk of significant revenue reversal because it is probable that a significant reversal in the amount of revenue recognized from the contract will not occur when the uncertainty is subsequently resolved. The Company’s policy was to measure the non-cash consideration on the date of contract inception (when we commence performance of hash calculations) based on the spot rate of bitcoin at the time the pool successfully validates a block which was not consistent with the measurement used to measure non-cash consideration for FPPS and PPS pools. During the three months ended December 31, 2023, the Company changed its measurement to the simple average daily spot rate of bitcoin determined using the Company’s primary trading platform for bitcoin on the date of contract inception (when we commence performance of hash calculations) which is the same day that control of the contracted service (hash calculations) is transferred to the pool operator. The change in measurement did not have a material impact to the results of operations for any of the periods presented.

Expenses associated with providing hash calculation services to third-party operated mining pools, such as hosting fees, electricity costs, and related fees, are recorded as cost of revenues. Depreciation on digital asset mining equipment is also recorded as a component of cost of revenues.