Bitcoin mining Marathon Digital Holdings is preparing. Half of it.
In a statement on Tuesday, the publicly traded company announced that it has purchased two bitcoin mining sites for $178.6 million. Data center sites are based in Texas and Nebraska.
The company said that the move will add 390 megawatts of capacity, and it is expected to reduce the cost per penny by 30 percent.
Bitcoin halving is an event that occurs approximately every four years. The arrangement is baked into the Bitcoin protocol, and miners — who maintain the network's security and process transactions — will see their rewards halved. Instead of 6.25 BTC for each block they process, miners are rewarded with 3.125 BTC.
The halving of rewards is to control Bitcoin inflation. Only 21 million bitcoins are minted, but halving would cause the supply to enter the market to steadily decrease.
“We've spent the last year strengthening our balance sheet by increasing our cash position, adding to our bitcoin holdings and reducing our debt half to be ready and able to take advantage of opportunities as they present themselves.” Marathon Chief Financial Officer Salman Khan said in a press conference.
Fred Thiel, Marathon's chairman and CEO, added that the acquisition “gives the company the opportunity to reduce our bitcoin production costs at these sites, take advantage of energy efficiency opportunities and expand our operational capacity.”
In the year The upcoming halving, the fourth of its kind since the cryptocurrency network launched in 2008, is expected to take place in April.
As with the halvings before it, the burning question on investors' minds is once again: Is the halving worth it? Some believe that the halving will be a big indicator for the market because the property will be shrinking; Others say Bitcoin's price will remain largely unchanged because buyers know it's coming and can prepare months in advance.
Previously experts They spoke Decrypt Miners have begun to buy more efficient machines to prepare for the event.
Marathon Digital is the second largest holder of Bitcoin of all public companies that have invested in the asset. The company has 13,396 BTC on its balance sheet – today's value is $567 million.
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