Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Blockchain, the world’s two largest public mining companies, are planning to aggressively expand their mining capabilities by several multiples.

  • Marathon and Riot mined 340.6 and 406 bitcoins in September, respectively
  • Marathon and Riot plan to expand their operational fleets by 526% and 461% over the coming few quarters, respectively
  • While the Nasdaq is up 16.18% this year, Marathon shares have gained 392.6% and Riot shares are up 63.92% over the same period.
  • Marathon and Riot have received a combined total of more than  40,000 ASICs this year.

China’s ban on cryptocurrency mining has caused an exodus of hashrate searching for homes around the world. American mining companies in particular have welcomed this transitioning hashrate into their facilities while also rapidly deploying new hashing power of their own. These dynamics have created a dramatic shift in the geography of bitcoin mining.

Riot and Marathon by the numbers

Marathon and Riot in particular are leading the growth of North American hashrate. The table below summarizes some key data about their respective growth.

To contextualize their recent growth, Marathon mined only 50.4 BTC In January 2021and Riot only mined 91 BTC in September 2020. Last month, both companies mined over 350 BTC each. The number of machines en route to these two firms is also impressive. Marathon and Riot received 26,960 and 17,600 new ASICs this year.

This recent growth is reflected in both companies’ share prices.

  • Riot shares are up 64% YTD.
  • Marathon shares are up 393% YTD.

With NASDAQ composite YTD returns equal to 16.55%, both firms are massively out performing their equity benchmarks.

A potential catalyst for Marathon’s recent rally, besides a rise in the price of Bitcoin, can be explained by the firm’s recent acquisition of a $100,000,000 line of credit for both covering operational costs as well as potentially purchasing additional mining equipment. This allows the firm to HODL their growing stash of bitcoin without operational cost concerns.

Conclusion

Year to date, 2021 has been a terrific year for Marathon and Riot. Both companies are mining upwards of threefold more bitcoin compared to this time last year. With large piles of bitcoin, plans for aggressive expansion, and a bullish cryptocurrency market, their futures seem bright. And as the wave of North American mining continues to surge, these and other leading mining companies are positioned to ride it well.