Marathon names director as CEO, Merrick Okamoto steps down

Marathon Digital (MARA) trades 8.1% higher premarket after its board appointed Fred Thiel as its new CEO, effective today, succeeding Merrick Okamoto who served on the post since 2018.Mr. Okamoto will serve as executive chairman of the board following the transition."Fred joined our company as a director in 2018. He has a long history of successfully leading and growing organizations in a variety of industries, and he has a uniquely pertinent and deep understanding of cryptocurrency and blockchain technology," Okamoto commented."This is a transformative year for our business as we are increasing our mining fleet to approximately 103,120 miners, which will produce 10.37 EH/s by the end of 1Q22," Thiel commented.Earlier to Marathon, Thiel co-founded and served as chairman of Sprocket, a blockchain and cryptocurrency technology and financial services company.