Marathon Digital has agreed to pay Hut 8 a $13.5 million termination fee to gain full operational control of its recently acquired Bitcoin mining sites in Granbury, Texas, and Kearney, Nebraska.
Marathon will replace the mining company as the site operator by April 30, while Hut 8 will continue to provide management services and carry out its own mining activities in the meantime.
Hut 8 President Asher Genoot said: “We are very proud of the work we have done since taking over management of the Kearney and Granbury sites and would like to recognize the incredible talent and dedication shown by our teams across the sites.” said in a statement today. “We anticipate an orderly transition of operations in the coming months and look forward to providing an update on future plans when possible.”
Marathon signed a deal on Jan. 16 to secure ownership of the site from Generate Capital for $178.6 million. However, Hut 8 continued to manage site operations under an agreement with the previous owners.
Hut 8 gave up its $1.2 million-a-month contract.
Hut 8 inherited the service contract following its merger with USBTC last year. TheMinerMag previously reported that Hut 8 has more than four years left on his contract and is worth $1.2 million per month.
Marathon’s subsidiary and Hut8 agreed to terminate the contract on January 30 and transfer operational responsibility to Marathon. This will allow Marathon to reduce operating costs and improve production costs for mining Bitcoin on-site, the company said yesterday.
“Having direct operation of our sites in Granbury and Kearney will allow us to fully appreciate the operational and economic benefits of owning these assets,” said Fred Thiel, Marathon Chairman and CEO. “We look forward to gaining greater leverage and leveraging our operational expertise for new sites in Texas and Nebraska to realize the full benefits of our recent acquisitions.”
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