Marathon Digital Reports $80 Million Exposure to Distressed Data Center (Report)

The US-based bitcoin miner – Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. – reportedly has exposure of more than $80 million in one of its hosting providers – Compute North.

Two weeks ago, the latter joined the list of troubled entities affected by the ongoing crypto winter, filing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Multi-Million Exposure

According to a coverage by Bloomberg, the cryptocurrency miner had invested $10 million in convertible preferred stock of Compute North. It had allocated an additional $21.3 million to an unsecured senior promissory note in numerous entities within the bankrupt firm.

Marathon Digital had also paid around $50 million in operating deposits to Compute North for the provided services, boosting the total exposure to over $80 million.

The data center installed and hosted over 68,000 of Marathon’s bitcoin mining machines in its wind-powered Texas facilities during the last three months. Due to regulatory issues, though, the company could not turn on 40,000 of those units.

Compute North is among the largest crypto-mining infrastructure providers. Its facilities are spread to numerous destinations in the United States, including Texas, Nebraska, and South Dakota.

However, the current bear market crippled its operations. Last month, the company revealed it owns approximately $500 million to at least 200 creditors, while its assets are worth between $100 million and $500 million.

To continue conducting its operations, Compute North filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which did not lead to shutting down its business affairs. Instead, it helps the debtor to reorganize its structure and cope with the problems under court protection.

Marathon Digital’s team said it might shift some of its mining infrastructures to other regions should the issues with Compute North continue to disturb its business:

“While we expect operations to continue as originally anticipated, our asset-light model provides us with the optionality to relocate our miners to other locations, should the need arise.”

BTC Miners in Trouble

The decline of the cryptocurrency market and the global economic crisis have negatively impacted numerous companies in the bitcoin mining niche.

Such an example is the American-based Compass Mining. In June, it announced the departure of CEO Whit Gibbs and CFO Jodie Fisher due to “multiple setbacks” and disappointing performance.

A week later, Compass Mining dismissed 15% of its total workforce as part of the cost-cutting measures.

The publicly-traded Stronghold Digital Mining (SDIG) also experienced problems. In August, it returned 26,200 bitcoin mining rigs to New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) to reduce its $67.4 million outstanding debt.