- Marathon Digital will pay $179 million to acquire two Bitcoin mining sites with a capacity of 390 megawatts from Generation Capital.
- MARA shares soared 9% after the news broke, giving it a year-to-date gain of more than 530%.
- Bitcoin traded above $42,000, up 2.2% last week after paring recent gains.
Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital plans to increase mining capacity and reduce BTC mining costs after completing the purchase of two Bitcoin mining sites for $179 million.
Marathon will purchase the two mine sites from a subsidiary of Generate Capital at a cost of $458,000 per megawatt, which will be paid in cash, the company said in a news release. In total, the transaction will add 390 MW to Marathon’s mining capacity.
Marathon to Reduce BTC Mining Costs
According to Marathon, the transaction will be its “first wholly owned site” and will add 3% of the 584 MW it directly controls to its portfolio. The transaction will increase Marathon’s capacity to 910 MW, of which 45% is at company-owned sites and 55% at sites owned or operated by third parties.
Currently, 97% of megawatts are hosted on third-party sites.
Marathon said the acquisition will increase its operating hash rate to 50 exahash over the next 18 to 24 months. The miner says the site relocation in Granbury, Texas, and Kearney, Nebraska, should occur in the first quarter of 2024. If trading closes by then, it will be right before the highly anticipated Bitcoin halving.
The company expects to reduce mining costs by about 30%.
“Generate’s acquisition of sites in Granbury, Texas, and Kearney, Nebraska gives us the opportunity to reduce Bitcoin production costs at these sites, leverage energy hedging opportunities, and expand our operating capabilities,” said Marathon Chairman Fred Thiel. “It is done,” he said. And the CEO said:
Marathon’s announcement sent MARA shares up 9% on Tuesday. MARA is up 47% in the past week and, at the time of writing, is up 536% year-to-date. Meanwhile, Bitcoin price is up 2.3% over the past 7 days, or 154% YTD.