Key Takeaways
- Marathon Digital has agreed to buy 30,000 Antminer S19j Pros from Bitmain.
- The purchase will increase Marathon’s total hashrate by 30%.
- The move comes as an increasing number of Bitcoin mining companies look to expand their operations in North America.
Marathon Digital has agreed to purchase 30,000 Bitcoin mining machines from producer Bitmain in a deal worth over $120 million.
Marathon Digital Increases Mining Capacity
Marathon Digital has bought 30,000 Bitcoin mining rigs from Bitmain.
The North American mining company announced the purchase of 30,000 Antminer S19j Pro miners in a press release Monday.
The mining machines, manufactured by Beijing producer Bitmain, each have a theoretical hashrate of 100 TH/s (terahashes per second) for a total of 3 EH/s (exahashes per second) across all the new machines. Once deployed, the Antminer S19j Pros will bring Marathon’s total hashrate to 13.3 EH/s, around 12% of the entire Bitcoin network hashrate as of Aug. 1.
Commenting on the recent purchase, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel stated:
“With this new order, we are growing our operations by 30% to approximately 133,000 miners, producing 13.3 EH/s. As a result, once all miners are fully deployed, our mining operations will be among the largest, not just in North America, but globally.”
Based on current delivery schedules, the new mining machines are set to ship from Bitmain between January 2022 and June 2022.
Following China’s crypto crackdowns in June, America has become an attractive destination for Bitcoin miners. Along with Marathon Digital, other American mining companies are also aiming to capitalize on the decrease in mining difficulty caused by China’s crackdowns. Another leading Bitcoin miner, Genesis Digital Assets, recently announced a $125 million fundraise to further expand its operations in North America. The announcement comes after Genesis bought an additional 10,000 mining machines in June.
Chinese miners who are able to relocate are also eyeing U.S. states such as Texas, thanks to crypto-friendly legislation. In June, Texas authorized state-chartered banks to offer customers custody services for cryptocurrencies, making mining in the state easier. Additionally, Texas is well suited to address recent environmental concerns surrounding Bitcoin mining by offering easier access to renewable energy sources for mining operations.
Despite recent market turbulence, Bitcoin mining remains a lucrative business. With U.S. state governments taking a liberal stance regarding cryptocurrency mining, North American companies like Marathon Digital are well-positioned to expand into the gap in the market left by China’s regulatory crackdown.
Disclaimer: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC and ETH.
