Marathon and Riot battle for the title of America’s biggest Bitcoin miner

Nevada-based cryptocurrency mining firm Marathon Patent Group has announced the purchase of 10,000 Antminer S-19 Pro ASICs as part of its plan to become the largest mining firm in North America.

The publicly traded firm announced the purchase on Oct. 26, revealing plans to command an operational hash rate of 2.56 exahashes per second (EH/s) in July 2021 — equal to 1.9% of the current hashing power of the entire Bitcoin network.

The firm had previously ordered 10,500 S19 Pros to bolster its existing operation of 2,560 units. 

With the exception of 500 miners set to arrive in November of this year, the miners will be delivered throughout the first half of 2021 — with 4,000 units scheduled to arrive in January, 6,300 in February, 4,800 in March, and then 1,800 in April, May, and June respectively.

The race appears to be on for the crown of North America’s largest Bitcoin miner, with Riot Blockchain announcing the purchase of 2,500 S19 Pros earlier this month which are scheduled for deployment in December

Until Marathon’s announcement, Riot Blockchain was aiming to emerge as the region’s top miner with a 2.3 EH/s hashrate targeted for June 2021 after purchasing 18,640 S-19s this year.

While Riot’s current operational hash rate of 519 pentahashes per second (PH/s) currently beats out Marathon’s roughly 300 PH/s capacity, Marathon expects to overtake Riot in April 2021.

Texas-based firm Layer 1 appears to have been side-tracked in its bid to claim 30% of global hash rate, with a U.S. district judge rejecting the firm’s motion to dismiss a patent infringement suit brought by tech firm Lancium.

Lancium claims Layer1’s mining operations violate its patent for a system helping data centers shut down or restart in response to fluctuating electricity prices. Despite filing its patent in March 2020, Lancium claims Layer1 is using the same system under the title of “proprietary demand-response software.”

”We appreciate Judge Albright’s rapid denial,” said Lancium CEO, Michael McNamara, adding: “We look forward to the next phases of the case and, ultimately, to the opportunity to present our case to the jury.”

Layer1 has not announced any expansion of capacity since the lawsuit was filed.