Marathon Q2 Bitcoin production is down 44% as the fleet is still crippled

Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Marathon Digital Holdings experienced a sharp decline of 43.8% in bitcoin production during the second quarter of 2022, with June recorded as the company’s least productive month in over a year after the collapse of the Montana plant.

In its latest mining update released on July 7, Marathon reported that it produced 707.1 Bitcoin in Q2 2022, down 43.8% from 1258.6 Bitcoin recovered in Q1 2022.

The company’s Bitcoin production received a special blow in June, after Marathon’s Hardin, Montana plant was hit by a massive storm on June 11 that knocked out the power station that fed 75% of the active fleet.

The power outage made June the company’s least productive month since March 2021, and threatens to continue into July, so far the Montana plant has not yet returned online, and no new blocks have been extracted from the MARA mining basin since June 12.

Marathon boss Fred Thiel acknowledged that the storm in June had a major impact on productivity, but also blamed some of the lack of hashish power on Marathon’s new Texas mine, which has not yet been turned on.

Thiel said the company has already installed 29,640 miners “representing about 2.9 exahashes per second” in Texas, although the energy supply to the plants expected in June has not yet taken place.

Thiel said that Compute North, the company that hosts the marathon mining facilities, could not be operated until the energy supplier had received “confirmation from the federal agency of its tax exemption status”.

Marathon VP for Corporate Communications Charlie Schumacher told Cointelegraph earlier this month that it may be looking to diversify mining operations to more states in the future.

Schumacher said that in addition to the existing facilities in Texas, the company explored alternatives in Dakota, Oklahoma and Georgia.

“We have already expanded in Texas at various facilities to reduce dependence on a single larger facility. Having geographic diversity will help protect us 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 cryptocurrencies. Cointelegraph reported on July 6 that mining revenues are down over 70% from the highest in November last year.

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So far, major miners such as Argo, Bitfarms, Core Scientific and Riot Blockchain have all reported selling coins to pay bills. Schumacher added that Marathon has not sold any coins yet and has no current plans for it, but did not rule it out as an alternative.

“When we look at financing our business, we are looking to make it the most profitable.”