Marathon Digital Holdings mined a record-high number of Bitcoin (BTC) in May, increasing its production by 77% compared to April 2023. The mining firm produced 1,245 BTC in May — up 366% from May 2022.
Marathon’s chairman and CEO Fred Thiel explained that the spike in BTC production was a direct result of the increase in the firm’s hash rate and BTC transaction fees.
The emergence of Bitcoin Ordinals Inscriptions, which are similar to non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on other blockchains, caused a significant uptick in Bitcoin transaction fees last month. In some cases, the transaction fees exceeded the 6.25 BTC block reward, making mining lucrative.
Thiel said:
“With our scale and our improved uptime during the month, we were able to capitalize on this opportunity. While such abnormally high transaction fees are historically rare, we believe these events can serve as a positive sign for the future of mining economics.”
The rise in BTC transaction fees accounted for approximately 11.8% of the total Bitcoin Marathon Digital mined in May, Thiel said.
Marathon Digital, one of the world’s largest mining firms, increased its operational hash rate by 9% month-over-month to 15.2 exahashes in May. The firm also said it increased its installed hash rate by 13% month-over-month to 20.1 exahashes.
As of June 1, Marathon Digital had an operating fleet of around 133, 600 Bitcoin miners capable of producing 15.2 EH/s. The firm aims to reach its goal of 23EH/s by the middle of this year.
The mining giant sold 554 BTC last month and held 12,259 BTC as of June 1. The firm also had $97.3 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents. The firm plans to continue selling part of its Bitcoin holdings to support its monthly operations, manage its treasury, and for general corporate purposes.
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