Marathon Digital Holdings, the world’s largest Bitcoin mining firm, has not sold any of its Bitcoin holdings during the past month.
Despite Bitcoin (BTC) being in a downtrend for over a month, Marathon Digital chose to hold onto all its Bitcoin.
As of June, the company held a total of 18,536 BTC worth over $1.1 billion, according to the firm’s operations report published on July 3.
The Bitcoin miner said it aims to continue to strengthen its Bitcoin holdings through open market BTC purchases and investing in “other opportunities to increase its Bitcoin yield.” However, it also noted that it may sell some of its BTC in the future:
“MARA opted not to sell any bitcoin in June. The Company still intends to sell a portion of its bitcoin holdings in future periods to support monthly operations, manage its treasury, and for general corporate purposes.”
The Bitcoin selling patterns of large holders, like mining firms, can have a significant impact on Bitcoin’s price, especially since the 2024 Bitcoin halving, which may be forcing miners to sell more BTC due to the block rewards being cut in half.
Marathon, valued at over $6.25 billion, is the world’s largest Bitcoin mining firm, surpassing the second-largest company, CleanSpark, by 62%. CleanSpark has a market capitalization of $3.85 billion, according to CompaniesMarketCap data.
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Marathon Digital doubles its operational hashrate, on track to 50 EH/s by the end of 2024
Marathon Digital has doubled its operational hashrate year-over-year to 26.3 exahashes (EH/s) in June.
The increase is primarily thanks to operational improvements in the Ellendale facility, which became fully operational at the beginning of July, according to Fred Thiel, CEO and chairman of Marathon Digital.
Thiel Wrote:
“Our proprietary mining pool outperformed, capturing 158 blocks during the month, a 10% increase over last year.”
The firm’s expansion is in line with its target to reach 50 EH/s by the end of 2024, according to Thiel:
“Domestically, our team continues to optimize our recently acquired sites with immersion cooling technology and the latest generation hardware. With these advancements and the expansion of our fleet, we remain on track to reach our target of 50 EH/s by the end of this year.”
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Heating via Bitcoin mining to support global energy transformation
Bitcoin mining is becoming a promising renewable source of heating and more companies are taking note after Marathon launched a pilot project that heats a town of 11,000 residents in Finland.
The 2-megawatt pilot project, located in the Satakunta region, uses a method called “district heating,” which centrally heats the water and distributes it through an underground network of pipes to heat houses.
This could prove to be a future-proof method for heating homes since Bitcoin mining rigs produce a significant amount of excess heat.
Bitcoin mining-based heating systems could reduce carbon emissions and reduce heating costs in the future, according to Marathon Digital’s Thiel:
“Integrating digital asset compute with district heating can reduce carbon emissions, lower costs, and minimize waste heat, leading to enhanced sustainability and economic savings for both industries and end-users. We look forward to expanding our global presence as a leader in leveraging digital asset compute to support the energy transformation.”
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