Bitcoin Miner Marathon Digital to Double Its Mining Capacity in 2024

As an analyst with a background in cryptocurrency and experience in following the Bitcoin mining industry, I am impressed by Marathon Digital’s ambitious goal of increasing its hash rate to 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) this year. The company’s recent acquisitions have significantly expanded its capacity, allowing it to double its mining scale without the need for additional capital. This is a strategic move that demonstrates Marathon’s confidence in the long-term potential of Bitcoin and its ability to operate efficiently at large scales.


Marathon Digital, a leading Bitcoin mining company, has disclosed its targeted hash rate milestones for this year and the next few years up to 2024. This announcement follows the recent Bitcoin halving event where miner rewards were lowered from 6.25 Bitcoins to 3.125 Bitcoins per block.

Marathon, with its ambitious goal for a Marathon-sized undertaking, has upgraded its projected hash rate for 2024 from 35-37 exahashes per second (EH/s) to an impressive 50 EH/s. This decision follows the company’s recent acquisitions that have significantly expanded its total capacity.

In a statement made on Thursday, Marathon CEO Fred Thiel announced that the firm intends to expand its mining operations twice as much this year, reaching that capacity by 2024. Thiel emphasized that the company would accomplish these goals without requiring additional capital and stated confidently that it would be “self-funded”.

“Given our present financial situation, reaching this growth goal is entirely self-sufficient for us, requiring no extra investment. We plan to utilize advanced technology and our exclusive innovations to enhance our fleet’s productivity and aim to consume around 21 joules per terahash as we expand to processing 50 exahashes.”

In the previous month, specifically in March, Marathon Digital purchased a Bitcoin mining facility with a capacity of 200 megawatts from Digital Applied for a sum of $87.3 million. Subsequently, they acquired two more mining sites from Generate Capital, costing $179 million collectively. These newly-acquired sites have a capacity of approximately 400 megawatts each.

Marathon Digital’s (NASDAQ: MARA) stock price has experienced a significant increase of more than 25% in the wake of the Bitcoin halving event that took place at block 840,000 on April 20. This trend is consistent among other mining companies within the industry. The surge in interest at block 840,000 can primarily be attributed to the excitement surrounding memecoins and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), with enthusiasts vying for the opportunity to create and incorporate “rare satoshis” using the Runes protocol.

Bitcoin Hashprice on Downfall

After the latest Bitcoin halving, which occurred about a week ago, the Bitcoin “hash rate price” has significantly decreased. According to the Hashrate Index, this price now hovers around $57. This number represents how much revenue a miner would make by using one petahash per second of computing power daily. Its lowest point was reached at $55 right after the fall of FTX in November 2022.

After the halving, the hash rate price peaked at $139 briefly due to increased transaction fees caused by heightened activity surrounding the Rune protocol. This event facilitated the creation of non-fungible tokens on the Bitcoin blockchain. Nevertheless, this spike in price was short-lived as transaction fees returned to their previous levels and mining difficulty experienced a significant increase, according to CryptoQuant data.

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2024-04-26 17:31