Bitcoin’s mining difficulty surged to a new record of 101.6 trillion. This milestone reflects the intense competition among miners as they strive to secure rewards in an increasingly complex network. Despite this challenge, major miners Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms reported strong production figures for October.
Marathon Digital’s revenues hit their highest monthly revenues since the halving in April by mining 717 BTCs worth $48.8 million. To this achievement, the company partly credited its rising hashrate, which went up 14 percent to above 40 EH/S. According to Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon, this increase in computing power cannot be overemphasized as it is one of the reasons that led to the production surge.
Additionally, Marathon benefited from higher transaction fees in October, which contributed around 5% to its total Bitcoin output. The firm’s proprietary mining pool, MARAPool, and private mempool Slipstream also enabled it to earn $400,000 worth of Bitcoin from two high-fee transactions.
Riot Platforms also reported a strong October, mining 505 Bitcoin valued at $34.4 million. This represented a 22.6% increase from the previous month. The company attributed this growth to recent installations of new MicroBT miners at its Corsicana facility, which raised its hashrate to 29.4 EH/s. Riot’s increased hashrate allowed the company to maximize its output, overcoming some of the obstacles posed by rising network difficulty.
Despite the positive production results, both companies’ stocks experienced declines on Nov. 4. Marathon’s stock dropped by 3.79%, while Riot’s fell by 4.87%. This stock reaction suggests that investors remain cautious about the rising network difficulty and its potential impact on profitability.
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Both Marathon and Riot have ambitious expansion targets. Riot aims for a hashrate of 34.9 EH/s by 2024. It aspires to hit 100 EH/s by 2027 and plans to buy more MicroBT miners. However, the company faced slight delays in expanding its Kentucky facility. This affected its immediate hashrate goal. Meanwhile, Marathon reiterated its aim to achieve a 50 EH/s capacity by 2025.
As Bitcoin’s mining difficulty reaches new heights, miners face mounting challenges to secure block rewards. Marathon and Riot’s October performance shows major miners’ resilience. But, rising difficulty levels require constant investment in equipment and upgrades.
