Bitcoin miner Marathon secures new 200-megawatt hosting deal

Bitcoin miner Marathon closed a deal with hosting provider Applied Blockchain that will secure the company at least 200 megawatts of energy capacity, with the option to increase it to 270 megawatts.

The company will deploy roughly 66,000 previously purchased miners, representing a hash rate of 9.2 exahash per second (EH/s), across two hosting facilities, according to an announcement Monday.

This is on top of an additional 42 megawatts of hosting capacity that Marathon had already secured with Compute North on July 5, as well as 12 megawatts from a number of other providers.

"We believe we have now secured enough hosting capacity to support our target of achieving approximately 23.3 exahashes per second of computing power for Bitcoin mining in 2023,” said Fred Thiel, Marathon’s chairman and CEO.

Applied Blockchain's facilities are still under construction. Miner installation will start during the fourth quarter of 2022 and wrap up around mid-year 2023.

"Demand for our hosting services remains robust despite the volatility in the cryptocurrency markets, giving us continued confidence in the growth potential of our business for fiscal 2023 and beyond," said Applied Blockchain chairman and CEO Wes Cummins.

Of the two facilities hosted by Applied Blockchain, the one in Texas will supply Marathon with 90 megawatts and the one in North Dakota will provide 110 megawatts.

Marathon saw its bitcoin mining production fall by 47.8% in June after a storm knocked much of its mining fleet offline.

The company's stock was up by 21.39% on Monday, prior to the company's announcement right after the market closed.