Traditional stock investors have just gotten another avenue for indirect exposure to the bitcoin market. A Nasdaq exchange listed former patent management company, Marathon, has changed its focus to ASIC mining and today started producing bitcoin.
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Marathon Mining
Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (Nasdaq:MARA), today announced that it has commenced bitcoin mining at a new facility in Quebec, Canada. Investors seems to greatly approve of this development as the stock is up 32% as of the time of writing a couple of hours after market open.
Marathon revealed that it had purchased 1,400 Antminer S9 miners from Bitmain and had leased 26,700 square feet of data center space in Quebec. The operations are expected to utilize approximately 2.0 MW and deliver approximately 19 Ph/s of ASIC mining capacity. The company is seeking to add up to an additional 3.9 MW of power. If completed, this is expected to provide capacity for up to 2,800 additional Antminer S-9s that if acquired, could be located at the same facility.
Marathon also explains to investors that while the Antminer S9s are presently mining bitcoin (BTC), they are able to switch to other digital assets/cryptocurrency using the SHA256 algorithm (such as bitcoin cash BCH) if needed.
From Patent Mining to Bitcoin Mining
Marathon was previously an patent licensing and commercialization company which acquired and managed intellectual property rights from a variety of sources, including large and small corporations, universities and other patent owners. Now the company is said to be focused on mining digital assets with specialized computer equipment and plans to expand its activities to mine new digital assets.
Merrick Okamoto, Marathon’s Interim Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board of Directors, stated, “Today’s announcement represents a milestone for the Company. I’d like to thank everyone that worked so hard to make this day a reality for our shareholders.”
The province of Quebec, Canada has become a magnet for bitcoin miners from all over the world thanks to cheap hydroelectric power and cold climate.
Are we expected to see many more public companies enter the bitcoin mining market? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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