Marathon Digital to acquire Bitcoin mining sites for 179 million dollars

Marathon Digital will pay $179 million to acquire two 390 megawatt capacity bitcoin mining facilities from Generate Capital.
Mara's stock jumped 9% after the news, giving it a more than 530% year-to-date gain.
Bitcoin was trading above $42k, up 2.2% over the past week.

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

Marathon will purchase the two mining sites from affiliates of Generate Capital for $458,000 per megawatt, which will be paid in cash, the company announced in a press release. In total, the agreement will add 390 megawatts to Marathon's mining capacity.

Marathon to reduce the cost of mining BTC

According to Marathon, the transaction will add 3% to the 584 megawatts it directly controls in its portfolio and become its “first wholly-owned site”. The deal will increase Marathon's capacity to 910 megawatts, of which 45% will be in the company's existing sites and 55% in third-party owned or operated sites.

Currently 97% MW is hosted on third party sites.

According to Marathon, the acquisition will grow to 50 employees over the next 18-24 months. The miner said the transfer of sites in Granbury, Texas and Kearney, Nebraska should occur in Q1, 2024.

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

“By acquiring sites in Granbury, Texas and Kearney, Nebraska, we have the opportunity to reduce our bitcoin production costs at these sites, take advantage of energy efficiency opportunities and expand our operational capacity,” said Fred Thiel, Marathon's chairman and CEO.

MARA's stock price rose 9 percent on Tuesday after the marathon announcement. MARA rose 47 percent last week. Meanwhile, Bitcoin price is up 2.3% in the last seven days and 154% YTD.