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A Bitcoin miner from the cryptocurrency's early days has suddenly sprung to life. They moved 250 Bitcoin worth nearly $14 million on Wednesday. This whale had been quiet for over a decade. The wallet started stacking sats back in 2010. That's when mining was way easier than now. On-chain data shows this. Bitcoin mining was different back then. A few geeks could earn coins with basic computers. It was a piece of cake compared to today's setup. The scene changed big time between 2010 and 2015. At first, you could mine with just a regular PC. The network wasn't that tough to crack. Early birds dominated the game when Bitcoin was still under the radar. As Bitcoin blew up, mining got harder. Fancy hardware called ASICs came into play. Big mining pools formed too. These pools let miners team up to boost their chances of validating blocks. The whale's long nap is pretty intriguing. Why sit on those coins for so long? Maybe they really believed in Bitcoin's future. Or perhaps it was just too tricky to move the coins safely back then. Looking at the blockchain, we can see the miner's initial 250 BTC was worth $28,080 in May 2013. Now it's ballooned to a whopping $14,022,065. That's a profit of over $13.9 million, which is nothing to sneeze at. This transfer lines up with what CryptoQuant's boss Ki Young Ju says is a buying spree for Bitcoin after Monday's price dip. Young Ju dropped some stats on Twitter. He said 404,448 BTC have moved to long-term hodler addresses in the past month. That's a boatload of coins going into cold storage, hinting that big players are betting on Bitcoin as a store of value. "It's clearly accumulation," Young Ju wrote. He reckons we'll know if this bet pays off within a year. This early miner's move might be part of a bigger trend. With over 400,000 BTC moving to long-term addresses, it looks like some heavy hitters are feeling bullish about Bitcoin's future. Time will tell if these whales are onto something or if they're just making waves in the crypto ocean.

Marathon Digital, a Bitcoin mining outfit, has kicked off a pilot project in Utah. It's using methane gas from landfill waste to power its mining operations. The company announced this on Thursday. They've teamed up with Nodal Power, a renewable energy firm. The project's capacity is a whopping 280 kilowatts, many miners around the globe would be happy to have access to such a capacity for their mining needs. It's all about testing Marathon's ability to capture methane from landfills. The goal is simple. Convert the gas to electricity. Use that juice to power Bitcoin miners. It's a win-win, really. Fred Thiel, Marathon's top dog, is pretty stoked about the whole thing. He said, "At Marathon, we're always looking for cool ways to mix things up." Thiel's not done. He added, "We want to cut our energy costs and do right by the environment." The pilot project could tick all these boxes. If it works out, Marathon's keen to expand. They want to help landfill operators meet their green targets too. Here's the kicker: methane is nasty stuff. The UN says it's 80 times worse than carbon dioxide. Its effects hang around for over two decades. The Environmental Protection Agency's got some eye-opening stats. In 2021, solid waste emissions made up nearly 15% of all methane emissions in the US. That's a lot of harmful gas. Thiel's got more to say. "Methane from landfills and biowaste is often just sitting there, doing nothing. Bitcoin miners like us can turn this harmful gas into clean, renewable energy. It's a no-brainer." Now, here's the thing: electricity is a massive cost for miners. So, they've been poking around for alternative power sources for a while. They're trying to tackle those pesky greenhouse emissions at the same time. It's like hitting two birds with one stone. Using a eco-friendly source of energy, that is powerful enough to provide effective mining might be the answer. Take Crusoe Energy, for instance. Last April, they raised a whopping $350 million. The plan? Set up remote facilities to use wasted natural gas for mining. Then there's Vespene Energy. In August, they bagged $4.3 million to turn landfill methane into Bitcoin. It's a whole new ballgame. Marathon's not stopping there. They've just announced plans to raise up to $750 million through a hybrid equity offering. This bombshell came via a FORM S-3 sent to the SEC. What's the cash for? New mining gear and expanding their operations. These guys are going all in.

Miner profitability has plunged to unprecedented lows. Blocksbridge, a storage infrastructure firm, reports that miner hashprice has dipped below $36 per petahash per second (PH/s). This metric gauges mining profit margins. The outlook is grim. Blocksbridge predicts a bleak future for miners if the upcoming difficulty recalculation isn't adjusted downwards. It's a tough pill to swallow for the industry. Bitcoin's price has bounced back after its August 5 tumble. Yet miner hashprice still hovers around $40 PH/s. This is 10% lower than the previous all-time low in July 2024. Talk about a double whammy. Big public mining companies are feeling the heat. MARA, Core Scientific, and Riot Platforms each face projected monthly mining costs of $60,000 or more per Bitcoin. MARA's all-in mining cost for July topped the charts. Ouch. These high costs hit differently across the board. MARA and Riot Platforms plan to hodl their Bitcoin. Core Scientific, on the flip side, sells 100% of its mined Bitcoin to cover operational costs. Each strategy has its pros and cons. MARA and Riot take on debt to expand and bet on future appreciation. Core Scientific reduces debt but takes a hit selling at current prices. It's a classic case of damned if you do, damned if you don't. July saw some miners cling to their coins. CleanSpark only sold 2.54 BTC at an average price of $62,000. That's a tiny fraction of the 494 BTC they mined that month. Talk about diamond hands. MARA, also known as Marathon Digital Holdings, bumped up its treasury by 2,282 BTC. That's about $124 million worth. They're playing the long game with their Bitcoin treasury strategy. Meanwhile, Bitcoin's mining difficulty has gone through the roof. It hit a new all-time high of about 90.6 trillion on August 1. This reverses months of relative decline. The mining difficulty gets recalculated every 2,016 blocks. It's set to readjust the week of August 12. Miners are on the edge of their seats, hoping for some relief. But in this wild world of crypto, who knows what's coming next?

Marathon Digital Holdings has made waves in the crypto world. The firm just bought $100 million worth of Bitcoin. This happened over the past month. Marathon is the world's largest Bitcoin miner. They're now using BTC as a strategic reserve asset. It's a big move. The company plans to go "full hodl". That's crypto slang for "hold on for dear life". Fred Thiel, Marathon's CEO, broke the news on X: "Today Marathon is proud to announce that to strengthen our strategy of holding Bitcoin as our strategic treasury reserve asset, we have over the past month purchased $100 million in BTC, and will now go full HODL @saylor." This is a big deal. Large holders like mining firms can really shake up Bitcoin's price. This is especially true with the 2024 Bitcoin halving coming up. Miners might need to sell more BTC then. But Marathon's playing it cool. They didn't sell any Bitcoin in June, even when prices were dropping. That's pretty gutsy. Back then, they said they might sell some Bitcoin. It would've been for operations, treasury management, and general corporate stuff. But now they've changed their tune. Thiel's all in on the "full hodl" strategy. He reckons they won't be selling any more BTC. Here's what he said: "Adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of Bitcoin." With this new $100M Bitcoin buy, Marathon's holdings are massive. They've now got over 20,000 BTC. That's worth more than $1.28 billion. Not too shabby. So, what's next for Marathon? Only time will tell. But one thing's for sure – they're betting big on Bitcoin. It's a bold move in a volatile market. Let's see if it pays off.

Senator Cynthia Lummis has launched a blistering attack on the Biden administration's proposed 30% excise tax on Bitcoin mining energy consumption. According to Lummis, the White House has no idea about how green Bitcoin mining really is. Yes, green, despite all the popular myths. The pro-crypto lawmaker released a report on July 23 titled "Powering Down Progress: Why A Bitcoin Mining Tax Hurts America". The report sheds light on the Bitcoin mining industry's benefits to the US energy grid. Lummis argues the tax would harm America's interests. She cites data suggesting Bitcoin mining is cleaner than commonly believed. "Up to 52.6% of BTC mining might be emissions-free," the report states, referencing the Bitcoin Energy and Emissions Sustainability Tracker. Lummis emphasizes the growing role of mining facilities in grid stabilization. The GOP senator highlights a key example from Texas. In 2022, Bitcoin miners sold 1500 megawatts back to the grid during peak demand. This pattern repeated in 2024 during winter storm Heather. Lummis claims the proposed tax would backfire environmentally. "It would disincentivize miners from seeking sustainable energy sources," she argues. The senator gives examples of innovative energy use in mining. She points to methane sequestration from landfills for Bitcoin mining. Lummis also mentions El Salvador's use of volcanic energy to mine 474 Bitcoin. In Finland, a Marathon Digital facility heats an entire community of 11,000 people. The report notes Marathon Digital's agreement with Kenya to develop renewable energy. Kenya already sources up to 80% of its energy from renewables. Lummis argues these initiatives could be at risk under the new tax. The senator invokes the Laffer Curve to warn of potential consequences. She argues higher taxes will drive miners out of the US, reducing tax revenues. Lummis cites China's 2021 mining ban as a cautionary tale. "Before the ban, Chinese miners controlled a majority of the Bitcoin network's hashrate," the report states. The implication is clear: overtax the industry, and it will simply move elsewhere.