Marathon Digital Holdings – one of the leading cryptocurrency mining companies – said that 75% of its operations are currently without power because of a devastating storm that passed recently through the state of Montana. Miners from that region are expected to restore some of their activity during the first week of July.
The Thunderstom’s Consequences
The weather conditions in the northwest state of Montana have been quite severe in the past few weeks, leading to electricity outages and blocked infrastructure. One of the giants in the digital asset mining field – Marathon Digital Holdings – was also affected.
In a recent announcement, the company said a storm that occurred at the beginning of June crippled the operations of all 30,000 miners in the area:
“On Saturday, June 11, a severe storm passed through the town of Hardin, damaging several structures, including the power generating facility that supplies Marathon’s bitcoin mining operations with power.”
It is worth noting that the 30,000 miners account for 75% of Marathon’s total active fleet. The damages are expected to be partially solved at the beginning of July. Even when that’s done, the firm’s productivity will stay significantly reduced until the problem is solved completely.
In April, Marathon disclosed its intentions to move some of its miners from the Montana facilities to other regions in the United States. Considering the current adverse conditions, it might speed up its plans. Giving further information on the issue was Fred Thiel – Chairman and CEO of Marathon:
“Bringing miners fully back online will take time, and we are committed to doing everything we can to rebuild our hash rate and to improve our bitcoin production… Separate from this event, construction and installations in Texas have continued as scheduled, and given the current macro environment, our pipeline of potential new hosting arrangements remains strong.”
Marathon’s Recent Endeavors
In November 2021, the company raised $500 million in debt, vowing to use the financing to buy bitcoin and BTC mining machinery. Several weeks later, Marathon purchased 78,000 of the newest generation Antminer S-19 XP mining equipment for nearly $900 million.
According to the deal, Bitmain will deliver 13,000 units per month in July, August, September, October, November, and December this year.
It is also worth mentioning that Marathon is a publicly-traded firm. Upon announcing the news about the multi-million purchase of mining machinery, stocks rose to nearly $35. In the following months, though, the USD valuation significantly declined, and shares are currently trading at around $6.