By EZ in News — May 11, 2023

Marathon Digital and Zero Two To Develop Large-Scale Immersion Bitcoin Mining Facilities in Abu Dhabi

Marathon Digital has formed a joint venture with Zero Two - backed by Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund - to establish the first large-scale immersion Bitcoin mining operations in the Middle East.

"The newly formed Abu Dhabi Global Markets JV Entity (the “ADGM Entity”) will initially develop and operate two digital asset mining sites with a combined capacity of 250 megawatts," press release states.
"The larger 200MW site will be located in the sustainability hub of Abu Dhabi, Masdar City, and the 50MW site will be located in the port zone of Mina Zayed."

"To power the sites, Marathon and Zero Two intend to leverage excess energy in Abu Dhabi, increasing the base load and sustainability of the Abu Dhabi grid."

"The equity ownership in the ADGM Entity will be 80% for Zero Two and 20% for Marathon. During the 2023 development period, capital contributions, in proportion to the equity interest in the ADGM entity, are anticipated to total approximately $406 million in aggregate."
"Marathon and Zero Two developed a custom-built immersion solution to cool the ASIC miners and implemented proprietary software to optimize their performance."

"The mining equipment and infrastructure required to build each site has already been ordered, and construction of both digital asset mining sites is currently underway."

"Once operational, these sites are expected to be among the most technologically advanced and energy-efficient digital asset mining operations globally. Based on the current construction schedules, both sites are expected to come online before the end of 2023, with a combined hash rate of approximately 7 EH/s."

In related news, Marathon Digital also disclosed the receipt of a new subpoena from the Securities & Exchange Commission, directly tied to an ongoing investigation into its Montana-based data center, Blockworks reported.
Marathan also shared their Q1 2023 financial results. The company recorded a net loss of $7.2 million and sold $17.6 million worth of bitcoin in the quarter to fund operating costs.

Recently, United Arab Emirates (UAE) was also mentioned as a potential 'crypto' hub for the Middle East and parts of Africa and Asia by Coinbase's CEO Brian Armstrong.

Great meeting with H.E. Dr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zeoudi, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Trade 🇦🇪

Very impressive what they’ve done on free trade in the region, and establishing UAE as a financial hub. pic.twitter.com/DgfZb6Wmvs
— Brian Armstrong 🛡️ (@brian_armstrong) May 9, 2023