Chinese mining equipment manufacturer Bitmain has just closed a deal with the Marathon Patent Group, one of the oldest Nasdaq-listed crypto mining company, for the sale of 10,500 next-generation Antminer S-19 Pro models for $23 million.
According to a public announcement from Marathon on Friday, the recent move was one of the initial steps towards the company’s goal to become the largest bitcoin mining firm in the United States.
The next-generation S-19 Pro series claims to offer 10 terahash per second (TH/s) per unit and is said to be the most profitable Bitcoin miner to date.
The CEO of Marathon Merrick Okamoto, said in a statement that the recent acquisition was a major milestone for the company, adding:
“This investment is expected to result in Marathon being one of, if not the largest, bitcoin miner in North America.”
With the arrival of the new batch of mining rigs, the total number of bitcoin miners owned by the Marathon group would stand roughly at 13,520.
Prior to this, the company had purchased 500 S-19 Pro miners in mid-June and at the end of July, along with 700 M31S+ Whatsminers from Microbt, and another 660 rigs from Bitmain.
The company’s CEO continued:
“Today’s news comes on the heels of recent incremental business growth through the purchase of what now is expected to total 13,520 next-generation miners generating 1.55 exahash (EH/s) upon full installation.”
The market for crypto mining company stocks has been on an uptrend lately with public listed firms like Hut8 and Riot blockchain seeing an increment in share prices. The stock price for Marathon itself was up more than 12% at the time of writing.
The new mining rigs will be installed in Marathon’s facility in Quebec over the weekend, and Bitmain also plans to ship 1000 previously ordered rigs to Marathon in between October and November.
With the latest acquisition, the Las Vegas-based mining firm would be accounting for 1.2% of total hashrate on the Bitcoin network.
Meanwhile, Bitmain continues to struggle with an internal feud between its co-founders, Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan Ketuan drag on. The leadership battle resulted in a three-month delay in the shipping of Antminers.
Despite the delays, Marathon confirmed in its latest announcement that “1,360 miners were delivered” to the firm’s hosting facility.
