Cryptocurrency mining company Marathon Digital Holdings has announced that it has partnered with digital asset infrastructure company Zero Two to create a large-scale immersion Bitcoin mining facility in Abu Dhabi.
In a May 9 statement, Marathon Digital said the joint venture will be based in Zayed Mine and Masdar City, in the United Arab Emirates, and will consist of two mining facilities with a combined capacity of 250 megawatts. According to the company, Marathon and Zero Two plan to power the facility with surplus power from the Abu Dhabi grid, claiming it will increase their baseload and sustainability.
Cryptocurrency mining in Abu Dhabi’s desert climate, where the average annual temperature is around 28 degrees Celsius, was often “unfeasible,” according to Marathon Digital. The company said it had helped develop a “custom immersion solution” for cooling mining equipment at the proposed facility, suggesting a liquid cooling solution.
“For this project, our team co-developed and successfully implemented a full immersion solution, as well as developing proprietary mining software from the ground up to provide flexibility, resiliency, and optimization,” stated Fred Thiel, President and CEO of Marathon Digital.
We are excited to share details of our new #Bitcoin mining sites in the UAE. Owned and operated via a joint venture with Zero Two, this initiative marks the first large-scale immersion Bitcoin mining operations in the Middle East. Learn more: https://t.co/vFROdM6urR
— Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) (@MarathonDH) May 9, 2023
Ownership of the project, dubbed the Abu Dhabi Global Markets JV Entity, will be split between Zero Two and Marathon Digital, with both companies controlling 80% and 20%, respectively. The two companies expect the two Abu Dhabi facilities to come online by 2024 and produce a combined hash rate of approximately 7 EH/s.
News of the planned mining operation came amid a visit to the UAE by executives from US-based cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase to test the region’s potential as a “strategic hub” for its international operations. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong met with policy makers and spoke at the Dubai FinTech Summit.
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