Marathon Digital breaks own record with 1,853 Bitcoin mined in December

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital Holdings has notched itself a new production record, mining more Bitcoin (BTC $43,867) in December 2023 than any month before.

According to a Jan. 4 press release, the Florida-based firm reported mining 1,853 Bitcoin in December, a 56% increase from November and a 290% increase from December 2022, claiming:

We believe this to be the highest monthly total ever recorded by a public Bitcoin mining company.

Core Scientific previously claimed that it had mined the most monthly Bitcoin in January 2023 after producing 1,527 BTC. Marathon’s recent figures surpass that by more than 300 BTC.

Marathon chairman and CEO Fried Thiel said the record-setting monthly production could be attributed to an 18.4% monthly increase in hash rate to 22.4 exahashes per second.

On Dec. 19, Marathon announced plans to purchase two mining centers for $179 million, which will see an additional 390 megawatts of mining capacity added to its existing 584-megawatt output.

“We continue to target 30% growth in energized hash rate in 2024 and with the recently announced acquisition of the two sites from Generate Capital [...] we expect to reach 50 exahashes in the next 18 to 24 months,” added Thiel.

On Dec. 28, Marathon briefly topped the charts as the most-traded public company among mid and large-cap firms on the United States stock market. The company witnessed a staggering $3.3 billion daily trading volume, beating out blue-chip market darlings such as Tesla, Apple and Amazon on the day.

Marathon’s December performance comes amid a renewed push from Bitcoin mining firms to expand operations ahead of an expected approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund as early as Jan. 8 and the Bitcoin halving in April.

On Dec. 5, competitor mining firm Riot Platforms acquired an additional $291 million worth of Bitcoin mining rigs, marking the largest increase in the hash rate in the firm’s history.