Controversy
As Marathon Patent Group, the company gained a reputation as a "patent troll" due to its business model of acquiring patents with the sole purpose of suing other companies for infringement. Its subsidiary, Uniloc, was a prominent non-practicing entity that filed numerous lawsuits against well-known tech firms, leading to public criticism and a negative reputation.
In July 2024, a federal jury in California found Marathon liable for $138 million for breaching a non-circumvention agreement with investor Michael Ho. The jury concluded that Marathon used proprietary information and a bitcoin mining strategy Ho had provided in 2020, without compensating him as required under the agreement. Marathon stated that it respects the verdict but disputed the jury's findings and stated that the damages awarded have "no legal basis."
The Hardin, Montana joint venture drew regulatory and legal scrutiny after Marathon disclosed in November 2021 that it had received an SEC subpoena seeking documents related to the issuances of 6 million shares tied to the project. The company also faced multiple investor class-action lawsuits alleging misleading statements about the venture and its regulatory risks. While the lawsuits were voluntarily dismissed in October 2022, the event resulted in a significant drop in the company's stock price.
In May 2021, Marathon sparked widespread controversy within the cryptocurrency community by announcing that it would operate a "fully compliant" mining pool. The company stated that the pool would use software to filter out transactions from sanctioned entities on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list. This decision was met with immediate backlash from Bitcoin advocates and community members who criticized the move as a form of censorship that undermined the core, permissionless, and censorship-resistant principles of the Bitcoin network. Following the public outcry, Marathon reversed its decision in late May 2021, announcing it would no longer filter transactions.
In July 2024, Time magazine published an investigation into numerous noise and health complaints by residents of Granbury, Texas, many of whom attributed their ailments to a nearby Bitcoin mining facility owned and operated by Marathon Digital.
In November 2025, US district judge Reed O'Connor denied Marathon's request for a restraining order that sought to block Mitchell Bend, a rural area in Hood County, Texas, from voting on whether to incorporate as a city, which would allow the community to regulate a nearby Bitcoin mine owned by Marathon.
