Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) is gearing up to recover the momentum it lost after the Bitcoin (BTC) price crash in November 2021. With the excitement about the potential approval of spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs) in the US brewing, the giant tech company just achieved a new high not seen since April 2022.
Marathon Digital Stock Soars
Marathon Digital surged to $31.07 during the last Santa Claus Rally, a few days after it landed over a hundred million dollar deal in its bid to maintain its dominance in the Bitcoin mining sector. The company recently purchased Generate Capital’s plants in Granbury, Texas, and Kearney, Nebraska, to the tune of $178.6 million to boost its operations.
The acquisition is expected to bump Marathon Digital’s capacity by 390 megawatts (MW) to bring its total to 910 MW in 18 to 24 months. The move is also projected to almost double up the hashrate of the company to around 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) within that period. The series of procurements likewise increases the control of MARA to 45% from the previous 3% in its 584 MW plants while cutting its crypto mining expenses by 30%.
The build-up this week towards the forecasted spot Bitcoin ETF approval on January 10 just pumped Marathon Digital’s stock by over seven percent to $25.98 at Monday’s close at the Nasdaq Capital Market (Nasdaq-CM) exchange. During this period, it went between a low of $22.62 and a high of $26.6501. The upward tick of the asset coincided with the spike of Bitcoin to the $47K range yesterday.
How Much Did Investors Earn from Marathon Digital Since 2018?
Marathon Digital began its Bitcoin mining venture back when it was known as Marathon Patent Group in 2018. During this time, it started buying thousands of application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips to gradually expand its business. In 2021, it adopted its current branding to indicate its shift of focus to Bitcoin mining.
According to the Motley Fool, the jump of Marathon Digital to the Bitcoin bandwagon was initially ridiculed by analysts who saw it as a mere attempt of the company to drive up its stock price. However, the investing and stock market research group said that if you had begun investing $2,000 in MARA as early as February 7, 2018, which was the day it started building up its Bitcoin mining rig, you would have made around $5,000 today.
That’s a way different story if you had sold while Bitcoin was at its peak in November 2021 because you would have earned a whopping $14,357.
Is It Too Late to Invest in MARA? (Not an Investment Advice)
For the Motley Fool, there’s a key potential for Marathon Digital to see huge gains upon the approval of spot Bitcoin ETF in the US. Not to mention that we have the halving coming in April, which should further emphasize the scarcity of BTC.
But then again, investors are advised to exercise due diligence before pouring their money into its stock or Bitcoin as they are heavily influenced by a lot of factors and mainly by hype.