Marathon Q2 Bitcoin production down 44% as fleet remains crippled

Published at: July 8, 2022

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings experienced a steep 43.8% decline in Bitcoin production over the second quarter of 2022, with June registering as the company’s least productive month in over a year following the fall of its Montana facility.

In its latest mining operation update released on Thursday, Marathon reported that it produced 707.1 Bitcoin in Q2 2022, down 43.8% from 1258.6 Bitcoin mined in Q1 2022.

The company’s Bitcoin production took a particular hit in June after Marathon’s Hardin, Montana facility was hit by a massive storm on June 11, which knocked out the power station that fed 75% of its active fleet.

The outage made June the company’s least productive month since March 2021, and threatens to continue into July. To date, the Montana facility is yet to return online, and no new blocks have been mined from the MARA mining pool since June 12.

Marathon CEO Fred Thiel acknowledged that the storm in June had a major impact on productivity, but also cast some of the blame for the lack of hashing power on Marathon’s new Texas mining facilities, which have not yet switched on.

Thiel said the company has installed 29,640 miners “representing approximately 2.9 exahashes per second” in Texas already, though the energization of its facilities expected in June has not yet come to pass.

Thiel said that Compute North, the company hosting mining facilities for Marathon’s devices, can’t be powered until its energy provider gains “federal agency confirmation of its exempt status for tax purposes.”

Marathon’s vice president of corporate communications Charlie Schumacher told Cointelegraph earlier this month that it may be looking to diversify its mining operations across more states in the future.

Schumacher said that in addition to the existing facilities in Texas, the company was exploring options in the Dakota’s, Oklahoma and Georgia:

“We have already been expanding in Texas at different facilities to reduce the reliance on a single major facility. Getting geographic diversity will help protect us in the future.”

Concerns have arisen that more Bitcoin miners will sell coins in order to stay afloat amid rising energy costs and falling mining equipment and crypto prices. Cointelegraph reported on Wednesday that miner revenues are down over 70% from last November’s high.

So far, major miners such as Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific and Riot Blockchain have all reported selling coins to pay bills. Schumacher added that Marathon has not sold any coins yet and has no current plans to, but did not rule it out as an option:

“When looking at financing the business, we are looking to do it most advantageously.”