Marathon Digital to Take Over Management of Two Bitcoin Mining Sites

According to Blockworks, Marathon Digital is set to become the sole manager of two newly acquired bitcoin mining sites, effectively terminating competitor Hut 8’s current involvement in overseeing these facilities. Located in Kearney, NE and Granbury, Texas, the sites boast a combined operational capacity of 390 megawatts. Prior to this announcement, Hut 8’s managed services subsidiaries have led all aspects of the Kearney and Granbury site operations, including accounting, curtailment and customer relations. Marathon CEO Fred Thiel said in a statement that by the firm operating the sites on its own, “we will be able to fully recognize the operational and economic benefits of owning these assets.” By cutting out Hut 8 from the sites, Marathon “expects to more effectively participate in energy hedging and other energy management services, and to streamline the implementation of its proprietary technology to improve operational efficiency,” the firm added in a news release. Marathon is set to pay Hut 8 a termination fee of roughly $13.6 million, Hut 8 said in a Friday news release. The move by Marathon comes after the company revealed its intent in December to buy these sites as part of a $179 million cash deal. The deal closed on Jan. 16. Hut 8’s merger with US Bitcoin Corp. in November expanded the combined company’s reach, achieving 7.5 EH/s of installed self-mining capacity across six sites. This spanned locations in Canada, New York, Nebraska and Texas — including the two sites it will soon no longer operate. Hut 8 will maintain its operations and continue self-mining bitcoin at the Kearney and Granbury properties until April 30. The company stated that the nearly $13.6 million settlement from Marathon is expected to be paid within 30 days following that date. “We anticipate an orderly transition of operations in the coming months and look forward to providing updates about our future plans as we are able to,” Hut 8 President Asher Genoot said in a statement.