Marathon Digital to Power Paraguay Operations with Renewable Energy

Leading crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings is going international with its new Bitcoin mining project in Paraguay. The company came into a partnership with Penguin Infrastructure Holding, an energy-focused firm in the country, in October. The project will be their first initiative in Latin America. As of June 30, the company holds around 150K mining rigs.

Harnessing the Surplus

According to the official press release, Marathon Digital’s project in Paraguay will entirely be powered by renewable energy. The project will be developed in a couple of phases. The first stage will use 7 MW to power 0.3 E/s of the company’s miners. The second stage will increase the capacity to 20 MW for 0.8 EH/s of MARA’s mining rigs.

The company plans to use the nation’s energy surplus in its operations. Fred Thiel, CEO and chairman of Marathon Digital explains, “Paraguay produces approximately 32 terawatt hours of surplus energy per year, which results in lower productivity for the utility and for the country.”

He further added, “Bitcoin miners, like Marathon, have the unique ability to co-locate at sources of power that are producing excess energy, like the Itaipu Dam in Paraguay.” Itaipu Dam was once considered the largest hydropower facility, however, the title went to the Three Gorges Dam, built in China in 2003. Paraguay operates another dam apart from Itaipu dubbed Yacyreta.

Marathon Digital Holdings currently holds 13,726 Bitcoin according to a study by crypto data aggregator CoinGecko. Surprisingly, Riot Platforms, the biggest BTC miner in the US, came third in the list. The company possessed 7,309 BTC. Meanwhile, Hut 8 Mining, another crypto miner, held second position with 9,366 Bitcoin.

The latest earnings release highlights the Las Vegas-based Bitcoin miner’s revenue surged 670 percent year-on-year. It reported $98.7 Million in revenue owing to high BTC production rate and prices. Moreover, its venture in Paraguay has contributed to its hash rate by 8 percent. The company is targeting 26 EH/s by the end of 2023.

A desire to get long-term profit is among the major driving forces for crypto miners. Historical data indicates the flagship cryptocurrency is likely to surge following the halving, an event increasing Bitcoin’s mining difficulty. American hedge fund Pantera Capital predicts the asset’s price will explode to $149K after April 2024.

In its mining cycle, there will be 32 halvings out of which three have already been concluded. To this date, over 19 Million has been mined. The last Bitcoin is expected to be mined in the year 2140. Although the community believes the BTC price will gain following the event, past halvings did not have any significant impact on the asset’s value.

Anurag is working as a fundamental writer for The Coin Republic since 2021. He likes to exercise his curious muscles and research deep into a topic. Though he covers various aspects of the crypto industry, he is quite passionate about the Web3, NFTs, Gaming, and Metaverse, and envisions them as the future of the (digital) economy. A reader & writer at heart, he calls himself an “average guitar player” and a fun footballer.