Mining company Marathon invests hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase an additional 30,000 Antminer mining machines, with deployment expected to be completed next year.

The mining giant Marathon has once again purchased 30,000 Antminer S19j Pro mining machines from Bitmain for a total price of $120.7 million. The delivery is expected to take place between January and June next year. Marathon anticipates that after the full deployment of these mining machines, its total hash rate could increase to around 13.3 EH/s, accounting for 12% of the total Bitcoin network hash rate.

Will Mining Power Account for 12% of the Network?

Marathon Digital Holdings MARA is one of the largest Bitcoin mining companies in North America. According to its delivery schedule, it is expected to receive shipments from Bitmain in the first half of next year. The mining machines operated by Marathon's mining business will exceed 133,000 units.

In a press release, Marathon claims that this will bring the total hash rate to 13.3 EH/s. As of August 1st this year, the total network hash rate is approximately 109 EH/s. Therefore, if Marathon deploys all the mining machines today, its hash rate will reach 12%.

However, according to BTC.COM, the Mara Pool's hash rate share in the past three days was only about 2.14%, with around 100,000 mining machines currently operating. With an additional 30,000 mining machines soon to be acquired, can the hash rate share really reach 12%?

Controversy Over Bitcoin Scrutiny

On May 5th this year, Marathon announced that all its hash power would be transferred to the new Marathon OFAC Pool. The purpose is to comply with the regulations of the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and anti-money laundering (AML) laws.

Marathon will filter Bitcoin transactions through "dirty" addresses such as those on the OFAC blacklist and the dark web, processing only legal and compliant transactions and rejecting blocks with illicit transactions.

This move has been heavily criticized by the community, as it is seen as violating Bitcoin's anti-censorship properties and the original intention of permissionless transactions.

A month later, on June 2nd, Marathon announced the cessation of Bitcoin scrutiny and support for the Taproot upgrade.

Becoming the Largest Mining Company in North America

Irene Gao, Sales Director at Bitmain, expressed that Marathon is a major client of Bitmain, and they are delighted to have the opportunity to provide momentum for its growth by supplying 30,000 efficient mining machines. They look forward to continuing the cooperation.

In addition, Marathon is a staunch hodler, with a Bitcoin holding of 4,813, ranking fifth among all listed companies and first among all listed mining companies.