Marathon Patent Group, listed on the Nasdaq exchange, today announced the purchase of 4,813 bitcoins worth about $ 150 million. Marathon CEO Merrick Okamoto told The Block that the money was allocated from the company’s reserves. In addition, Marathon mines bitcoin using its own computing power.
“By leveraging the fiat funds we had to invest in bitcoin now, we are leveraging our potential as an investable company focused on one business,” said Okamoto. “We believe storing some of our reserves in bitcoin would be a better long-term strategy than storing it in US dollars. Some other progressive-minded companies like MicroStrategy think so too. ”
In mid-January, Marathon reported on raising $ 250 million. Answering the question about whether these funds were used to buy bitcoin, Okamoto said that the company at that time had $ 425 million in fiat currency, some of which was invested in cryptocurrency.
The acquisition of bitcoins was carried out through the mediation of NYDIG. A spokesperson told The Block that the deal was closed on January 21, with an average price of $ 31,135 per coin. He also stated that the purchase was completed “just a few hours” after the idea was received. Last month, NYDIG helped insurance giant MassMutual invest $ 100 million in bitcoin.
Marathon Patent Group has been mining bitcoin since the end of 2017. It currently uses 2,560 pieces of cryptocurrency mining equipment and produces an average of 1.5 to 2 BTC per day, Okamoto said. Marathon recently ordered over 100,000 more Antminer S19 miners from Bitmain for $ 270 million.
“Equipment shipments will begin this week,” said Okamoto. “Once fully deployed and installed, the company’s total computing capacity will exceed 10.34 exahashes, which we believe could make Marathon the largest Bitcoin miner in the world.”
He expects the hashrate to be enough to issue 55-60 bitcoins per day. The company hopes to gain an edge in the mining market through a recently formed joint venture with Beowulf Energy to supply its mining sites with cheap electricity. Due to this, Marathon hopes to reduce the cost of mining one bitcoin from $ 7,700 to $ 4,400.
Against the background of today’s announcement, Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: MARA) rose 7% before markets open. The share growth over the last half of the year is almost 2,000%.
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