Bitcoin (BTC) has been a success story this year as it rallied to recover its losses during the long crypto winter. In the backdrop of this surge, however, are companies linked to the premier cryptocurrency by market cap that pumped their stocks more than the digital asset.
300% to 600% Price Accumulation of Bitcoin-Related Companies
According to CNBC, the big winners this year that even trumped the 150% gain of Bitcoin were Coinbase, Microstrategy, and Grayscale Bitcoin Trust. The stocks of these companies soared by 300% while Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital recorded a 688% increase.
What’s more, the said businesses were among the biggest gainers in the US market. FactSet’s data revealed that the four were among the top eight performers of the year for companies with at least $5 billion market valuation.
“It’s just more fuel for a fire,” commented Galaxy Digital CEO Michael Novogratz in the network’s Squawk Box interview. “Crypto stocks are trading almost like a mania.”
Marathon Digital, one of the Bitcoin mining firms that BlackRock is betting on, was at the precipice of closure last year when it lost almost $400 million on its operations with only $28.4 million in sales. This came amid the falling Bitcoin prices of that period.
Marathon Digital’s fortune flipped this year as it registered $64.1 million in earnings for Q3, which was a result of a $97.8 million revenue pump the prior year. Now, it’s doubling down on its operations through a $178.6 million expansion in Texas and Nebraska. The acquisition will increase the Bitcoin mining portfolio of the company by 56% while raising its capacity to 910 megawatts and hashrate to 50 EH/s within the next 18 to 24 months.
“By vertically integrating, we take the profit margin for the third party out and we can run the site the way we want to run it,” said Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel. The exec also noted they are crafting contingency measures to ensure that they’re on “sound financial footing” the next time Bitcoin prices dip.
3 of the 4 Companies are the Largest Bitcoin Whales
It turns out that three of the four biggest gainers in Wall Street happen to be the biggest Bitcoin whales this year. Coinbase is just next to Satoshi Nakamoto in BTC holdings with a total of 947,755 BTC in its reserves and public wallets. Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, the largest asset manager in the world, had 643,572 BTC in its stash. Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy has been aggressively hauling Bitcoin as of late raising its supply to 189,150 BTC.