Marathon Settles Record-Breaking ASIC Acquisition, Buys 70,000 High Performance Bitcoin Miners

On December 28, the publicly listed firm Marathon Patent Group announced the purchase of 70,000 Antminer S19 bitcoin miners from Bitmain for $170 million. Marathon expects the shipments to complete in 2021, giving the mining operation over a hundred thousand ASIC miners or more than ten exahash of hashpower.

Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) revealed the company is dedicating a lot of capital toward the bitcoin mining industry. On Monday, Marathon announced one of the largest mining rig purchases to-date, as the firm has purchased 70,000 Antminer S19 bitcoin miners from Bitmain. The purchase will cost $170 million according to Marathon’s announcement on Monday morning.

The company anticipates the first delivery by July 2021, and the final shipment during the last month of next year. Marathon states that the company already commands a fleet of 33,000 miners and the recent purchase will triple the size of the operation.

The company just bought 10,000 ASIC miners during the first week of December 2020 as well. That particular purchase will max out the company’s 100MW data house located in Montana, Merrick Okamoto, Marathon’s chairman and chief executive officer explained at the time.

Once the newly acquired 70,000 S19 miners are fully deployed, Marathon said that the company will command 103,000 ASIC miners with 10.36 exahash per second (EH/s).

Irene Gao, the sales director at Antminer North, Central, and South America (NCSA) at Bitmain said the milestone purchase will serve both company’s interests. “We are excited that Bitmain has won this record-breaking purchase contract from Marathon,” Gao said during the announcement.

The Bitmain executive added:

Marathon has quickly become our largest customer, and our partnership continues to mutually benefit both of our companies.

Marathon’s CEO, Merrick Okamoto, believes the recent purchase order for 70,000 ASIC miners is one of the biggest deals in the bitcoin mining industry.

“This purchase is the largest order in dollar terms as well as the single largest order for S19 ASIC miners that Bitmain has ever received,” Okamoto stressed. “We appreciate the hard work their team is putting in to fulfill this order as well as the 30,000 S-19 miners we have purchased since August 2020,” he added.

The company’s sizable bitcoin mining rig order is part of an ongoing trend that’s been happening all year long in 2020. Enterprise-grade businesses have been purchasing thousands of ASIC miners from companies like Bitmain, Microbt, and Canaan.

The trend has made it more difficult for smaller buyers and individuals to get their hands on next-generation ASIC miners directly from the manufacturer. Five days ago the company publicly listed company Riot Blockchain, Inc.(NASDAQ: RIOT) purchased 15,000 next-generation miners from Bitmain.