Marathon Digital to acquire Bitcoin mining sites for $179 million

• Marathon Digital will pay $179 million to acquire two Bitcoin mining sites with 390 megawatts of capacity from Generate Capital.
• MARA stock surged by 9% after the news, bringing year-to-date gains to over 530%.
• Bitcoin was trading above $42k, up 2.2% in the past week after paring recent gains.

Bitcoin mining firm Marathon Digital is set to add to its mining capacity and reduce the cost of mining BTC when it completes the purchase of two Bitcoin mining sites for $179 million.

Marathon will buy the two mining sites from subsidiaries of Generate Capital at a cost of $458,000 per megawatt, with this paid for in cash, the company said in a press release. In total, the deal will see Marathon add 390 megawatts to its mining capacity.

Marathon to reduce cost of mining BTC

According to Marathon, the transaction will be its “first fully owned sites”, adding to the 3% of 584 megawatts it directly controls in its portfolio. The deal should see Marathon’s capacity jump to 910 megawatts, with 45% of this on sites the company owns and 55% on third-party owned or operated sites.

Currently, 97% of the megawatts is hosted on third party sites.

Marathon says that the acquisition will see its operational hashrate rise to 50 exahashes over the next 18-24 months. The miner says the transfer of the sites in Granbury, Texas and Kearney, Nebraska should happen in Q1, 2024. If the deal closes by then, it would be just before highly anticipated Bitcoin halving.

The company expects to cut mining costs by about 30%.

“By acquiring the sites in Granbury, Texas and Kearney, Nebraska from Generate, we have an opportunity to reduce our bitcoin production costs at these sites, to capitalize on energy hedging opportunities, and to expand our operational capacity,” Fred Thiel, Marathon’s chairman and CEO, said.

Marathon’s announcement saw the price of its MARA stock jump 9% on Tuesday. MARA was up 47% in the past week and 536% year-to-date at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Bitcoin price was up 2.3% in the past seven days and 154% YTD.