In a sensational move for the mining industry, Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) – a leading commercial mining operation – has committed to purchasing 78,000 Antminer S19XP ASICs from the Chinese mining giant Bitmain Technologies.
At a staggering cost of $879m, the deal represents one of the largest purchases of mining hardware that the digital asset industry has ever witnessed.
Bitmain are a market leader in the production of costly Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) that are used by commercial-level miners for the SHA-256 Bitcoin hash.
Marathon’s order will begin to be fulfilled in the summer at a rate of 13,000 ASICs per month.
By early 2023, $MARA's mining fleet will consist of c. 199,000 #bitcoin miners producing c. 23.3. EH/s.
Upgrades to mining fleet come after a record purchase of S19 XPs from @BITMAINtechhttps://t.co/ggx3DrKkdP
— Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) (@MarathonDH) December 23, 2021
Marathon expansion follows impressive year for MARA
It cannot be understated how big a move this is for Marathon – which currently runs around 103,000 ASIC machines – the new order will nearly double the mining capacity of the firm’s operations.
This represents a significant commitment to expansion from the company, likely as part of a strategy that will seek to maximise the potential of the 2022-2024 mining period ahead of the next scheduled BTC halving event.
The double-down nature of the deal comes following a remarkable year for Marathon’s stock MARA – which has outperformed Bitcoin – posting an impressive 210% return the past year to date.
Re-investing into larger scale operations now could yield the firm serious profits in 2025 following the next Bitcoin halving event.
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