Marathon Digital grew its hash rate by 4% in December and mined more bitcoin than it has in any single month prior.
The Florida-based firm mined 1,853 bitcoin (BTC) last month, up from 1,187 BTC in November. It opted to sell 704 bitcoins — roughly 38% of the December production — to cover operating expenses.
“We believe this to be the highest monthly total ever recorded by a public bitcoin mining company,” Marathon said in a Thursday news release.
BlocksBridge Consulting founder Nishant Sharma told Blockworks Marathon’s December bitcoin production surpasses a public miner record previously held by Core Scientific: 1,527 BTC, generated in January 2023.
The total significantly surpasses the number of bitcoins produced by competitors CleanSpark and Riot Platforms, which in December mined 720 BTC and 619 BTC, respectively.
Core Scientific, which mined 954 BTC in November, had not released its December production numbers as of Thursday morning.
The feat comes as Marathon, and industry companies continue to prioritize growth ahead of the next bitcoin halving slated for April — when per-block BTC rewards drop from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC.
Read more: Crypto miners keep busy ahead of halving with accelerated machine buys
Marathon Digital upped its energized hash rate to 24.7 exahashes per second (EH/s) in December. Core Scientific has been second in that category among public mining firms, sporting an energized hash rate of 21.6 EH/s as of Nov. 30.
Beyond growing hash rate, Marathon has expanded to other parts of the world, such as Abu Dhabi and Paraguay, as part of a broader effort to reduce costs.
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Source: https://blockworks.co/news/marathon-surpasses-public-miner-high