Marathon Digital, one of the leading publicly traded Bitcoin miners, is acquiring Applied Digital’s 200-megawatt Bitcoin mining data center in Garden City, Texas, for approximately $87 million in cash. This facility operates on renewable energy sources.

This marks Marathon's second acquisition of a mining data center, following previous investments totaling nearly $180 million in January. With this latest acquisition, Marathon's mining capacity will expand to 1 gigawatt, with 54% of it being located on sites owned and operated by the company.

Miners are upgrading their computing power in response to the halving event in April, which reduced the block rewards to 3,125 coins. Companies like Marathon are racing to enhance their operations to maintain profitability amid declining revenues.

Marathon's Chairman and CEO, Fred Thiel, stated that this transaction will improve operational efficiency and reduce the cost per coin by almost 20% at the acquired site. The data center also provides 100 megawatts of capacity, enabling further expansion. Thiel believes that some miners may become unprofitable following the halving due to the reduced Bitcoin rewards.

In other news, El Salvador's President, Nayib Bukele, announced plans to continue purchasing one Bitcoin daily with fiat currencies until it becomes unfeasible. The country also intends to transfer a significant portion of its Bitcoin holdings to a cold wallet stored in a physical vault.

On a different note, following the downfall of FTX, Sam Bankman-Fried explored various strategies to restore his reputation, including considering becoming a Republican. Nonetheless, he faces indictment scheduled for March 28th. Bankman-Fried was known for his advocacy of effective altruism principles.