Marathon Receives SEC Subpoena Related to 2020 Hardin Data Center Agreement; Shares Tumble

Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) executives received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to produce documents and communications concerning its Hardin, Montana, data center facility, the company said in a 10Q filing on Monday.

• The SEC is investigating whether Marathon Digital Holdings has been in violation of federal securities law.
• Marathon Digital Holdings said it was cooperating with the investigation, without specifying the nature of the possible violations.
• On Oct. 6, 2020, the bitcoin miner entered into a series of agreements with multiple parties to design and build a data center for up to 100-megawatts in Hardin, a small town in the northern part of the state, and issued 6 million of restricted Marathon common shares as part of the deal.
• Last October, Marathon Digital Holdings announced a joint venture with Beowulf Energy for the Hardin data center, where Beowulf will also become an equity shareholder of Marathon.
• Marathon Digital Holdings shares fell 27% on Monday, significantly underperforming its crypto mining peers. Meanwhile, the price of bitcoin was down about 0.5% in the last 24 hours.
• Earlier on Monday, the bitcoin miner said it will raise $500 million in senior convertible notes to buy more bitcoin and bitcoin miners.

UPDATE (Nov. 15, 21:13 UTC): Updated share price movement.