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.

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