Marathon Digital attributes 21% decline in Bitcoin mined to adverse weather conditions
Marathon Digital also noted that the decrease in transaction fees for June was not a cause for concern, highlighting that Bitcoin Ordinals had provided a boost in the previous month.
Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital has linked the recent slump in its total amount of Bitcoin’s (BTC) mined in June to the weather conditions in Texas and a drop in transaction fees.
According to a July 5 statement, Marathon Digital experienced a “21%” decline in June for the total amount of Bitcoin mined compared to the previous month of May.
The primary reason cited for the decline of production in June – which saw 979 Bitcoin produced throughout the month – was the impact of the weather conditions in Texas, where Marathon’s main operations are located.
It’s worth noting that June marks the transition from spring to summer in Texas. According to data from the National Weather Service in Dallas, Texas, there was a jump of almost 8.4 degrees Fahrenheit in the average temperature between May and June. May averaged 75.6 degrees Fahrenheit, whereas June averaged 84 degrees Fahrenheit.
“The decreased production relative to last month was due to weather-related curtailment in Texas and a significant decrease in transaction fees.”
Cointelegraph previously reported on Feb 6 that crypto mining firm Riot Platforms saw 17,040 rigs go offline at its operations in Texas due to “severe winter weather” in the state.
It was further explained that Marathon Digital’s transaction fees fell to approximately “5.1%” of the total Bitcoin earned in June, compared to “11.8%” earned in May.
It was noted that the “emergence” of Bitcoin Ordinals significantly increased transaction fees in May, adding that while network congestion eased in June, the company still has a positive outlook for the “future of mining economics.”
Related: Heating a home with a Bitcoin miner: Staying warm with sats
This is not the first time that weather this time of year in Texas has had a major impact on crypto miners.
In July 2022, Peter Wall, CEO of crypto mining company Argo Blockchain, which operates a data center in West Texas, told Cointelegraph that the company curtails mining operations when ERCOT sends out a conservation alert.
In more recent news, a report released on July 5 by cryptocurrency analytics platform Coin Metrics revealed that Bitcoin miners made a $184 million from transaction fees in the second quarter of 2023, which is more than they made throughout the entire year of 2022.
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