Marathon acquires 30,000 more Bitcoin miners in an attempt to become the leading Bitcoin miner in the United States by 2022, with a target of 13.3 EH/s hashing power.
In a recent announcement, Marathon Digital stated that it had purchased additional Bitcoin mining hardware from Bitmain.
Following the publication of a press statement on Monday, the United States-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining behemoth said that it has finalised the purchase of 30,000 Antminer S19j Pro mining machines for a reported cost of $120.7 million.
Marathon’s Bitcoin mining inventory has grown yet again as a result of the announcement, with Bitmain estimating that the new rigs will be delivered by June 2022.
Marathon’s total Bitcoin miner count will rise to more than 133,000 with the addition of the 30,000 rigs, resulting in an anticipated hash rate of 13.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) from the rigs.
To put the amount into context, according to data from BTC.com, the top three Bitcoin mining pools have between 13.16 EH/s and 18.67 EH/s of output.
Marathon will effectively control more than 12 percent of the current Bitcoin mining hash rate if it continues to operate at its present rate of 13.3 EH/s per second.
Running a dominant position in the global hash rate distribution, Marathon’s CEO, Fred Thiel, alluded to the advantages of having such a strong presence in the global hash rate distribution, according to an announcement quoting him as saying:
“Increasing our percentage of the total network’s hash rate increases our probability of earning bitcoin, and given the uniquely favourable conditions in the current mining environment, we believe it is an opportune time to add new miners to our operations.”
In response to China’s ban on Bitcoin mining, the worldwide hash rate distribution has been rearranged, with North American participants projected to hold a larger chunk of the sector going forward.
Even before Beijing took action against cryptocurrency mining, American and Canadian mining behemoths increased their capacity by purchasing fresh inventory from the two largest Bitcoin manufacturers — Bitmain and MicroBT — to meet increased demand.
The movement of hash rates from East to West may also have the additional benefit of reducing the carbon footprint involved with Bitcoin mining. Marathon is one of a rising number of mining companies in the United States that are purportedly committed to “green mining.”
Meanwhile, it has been claimed that Chinese miners have begun to set up shop in Kazakhstan, with the immediate result being an increase in the hash rate used for Bitcoin mining.
