Marathon Digital reported a significant increase in its Bitcoin production compared to the previous year, despite expectations surrounding the halving event.

According to its April operational report, Marathon disclosed that it produced 850 BTC, marking a noteworthy 21% rise compared to the year before. This increase is mainly attributed to a 15% boost in its operational hashrate, which now stands at 21.1 exahash.

The introduction of the Runes Protocol and the Bitcoin halving event, which reduced miners’ rewards to 3.125 BTC per block, likely had a marginal impact on the data, as it occurred less than a month before the end of April.

However, Marathon's enhanced hash rate enabled it to benefit from the increased transaction fees spurred by the Runes Protocol. Transaction fees contributed approximately 16% to the Bitcoin earnings in April.

Fred Thiel, Marathon’s chairman and CEO, commented:

“In April, we achieved an all-time operating hash rate high of 25.9 exahash. Transaction fees also reached all-time highs around the Halving, which we were able to capitalize on with our Slipstream service and our proprietary mining pool. Just before the Halving, we earned an additional 4.25 BTC from Slipstream alone, and MARA Pool outperformed, capturing one block with 10 BTC and another with 16 BTC in transaction fees.”

Meanwhile, Marathon stated that it sold 600 BTC in April to sustain monthly operations, manage its treasury, and for general corporate purposes. As of April 30, the miner held 17,631 unrestricted Bitcoin.

In a separate development, Kenya’s president, Williams Ruto, discussed ongoing consultations between the African country and crypto miners regarding crypto regulations and mining at the AMCHAM summit.

Ruto mentioned:

“Marathon Digital has been engaged to consult with the National Treasury Kenya on our cryptocurrency regime and with the Ministry of Energy to discuss its energy requirements related to cryptocurrency mining here in Kenya.”

The company confirmed this development, indicating that its team is exploring how its digital asset data centers could contribute to energy development in the region and enhance US-East Africa trade relations.