The bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings experienced a sharp 43.8% decline in bitcoin production during the second quarter of 2022; June was the company’s least productive month in more than a year after the collapse of its Montana facility.
In its latest mining operation update published on July 7, Marathon reported that it produced 707.1 bitcoins in the second quarter of 2022, down 43.8% from the 1,258.6 bitcoins mined in the first quarter of 2022.
The company’s bitcoin production took a particular hit in June, after Marathon’s facility in Hardin, Montana, was hit by a massive storm on June 11 that knocked out the power plant that powered 75% of its active fleet.
The outage made June the company’s least productive month since March 2021, and threatens to continue into July, as to date, the Montana facility has yet to come back online. and no new blocks have been mined from the MARA mining pool since June 12.
Marathon CEO Fred Thiel acknowledged that the June storm had a major impact on productivity, but he also placed part of the blame for the lack of hash power on the new Marathon mining facility in Texas, which has yet to come online.
Thiel said that the company has installed 29,640 miners “representing approximately 2.9 exahashes per second” in Texas already, although the energization of its facilities expected in June has yet to occur.
Thiel said that Compute North, the company that hosts the Marathon device mining facility, cannot receive power until its power provider obtains “confirmation from the federal agency of its tax-exempt status.”
Marathon’s vice president of corporate communications, Charlie Schumacher told Cointelegraph earlier this month that he may be looking to diversify his mining operations into more states in the future.
Schumacher said that, In addition to existing facilities in Texas, the company was exploring options in Dakota, Oklahoma, and Georgia.
“We have already expanded across Texas into different facilities to reduce reliance on a single major facility. Getting geographic diversity will help us protect ourselves in the future.”
Concerns have been raised that more bitcoin miners will sell coins to stay afloat amid rising energy costs and falling mining equipment and cryptocurrency prices. Cointelegraph reported on July 6 that miner revenue is down more than 70% from last November’s peak.
So far, big miners like Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific, and Riot Blockchain have reported selling coins to pay bills. Schumacher added that Marathon has not yet sold any coins and has no current plans to do so, but did not rule it out as an option.
“When seeking financing for the business, we seek to do it in the most advantageous way.”
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