Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital to Buy New Mining Sites for $179M

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (MARA) said it will buy two new mining sites from subsidiaries of lending firm Generate Capital for $178.6 million.

The acquisition, which will add 390 megawatts of capacity, will be paid in cash from Marathon's balance sheet, the company announced on Tuesday. Across the two sites, around 21% is vacant and available for expansion, 63% is occupied by bitcoin mining tenants and 16% is already occupied by Marathon. Marathon said it expects the acquisitions to reduce the cost per coin mined by around 30%.

Generate Capital acquired stakes in two mining sites from bankrupt miner Compute North for $5 million in November last year.

Bitcoin's ($BTC) anticipated halving in April 2024 is leading mining firms to reassess their operations to ensure they are prepared for the rewards for creating new $BTC being cut by 50%. One such way is by acquiring smaller firms to bring greater scale to their mining activities. Marathon said earlier this month it had $800 million to use to that end.

Marathon's Nasdaq-listed shares are currently up about 7% on the day at $21.29, in line with its mining peers. The bitcoin price has risen about 1.66% in the last 24 hours.

Read More: Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital Beats Q3 Earnings Estimates, but Misses on Revenue