Was it around the time of the halving? Maybe they were trying to solo mine the juicy fees

Fee hunting

Corey wanted to increase the chances that Ocean mined block 840,000 but the rewards are still too unpredictable for the amount of capital they have invested.

Chicken or the egg problem for Ocean…

The way ocean pays out, the miner with most hash would receive the first sats of the block. Was the best way to increase your shot at mining a “rare sat” to sell to an idiot.