“We are mining Kaspa”: Marathon
Marathon Digital Holdings, the world’s largest bitcoin (BTC) mining company, has expanded its operations. “We have been actively mining Kaspa,” it announced in a statement on June 26. The goal of this initiative, it said, is to “further diversify its digital asset mining portfolio.”
“Diversification has been key to our investments in energy solutions and technological innovations, and remains crucial in our digital asset computing operations,” the company said.
With a capitalization of 3.9 billion dollars (USD), kaspa (KAS) is currently the 24th largest crypto asset on the market and the 5th largest among proof-of-work (mining) cryptoassets. Its circulating supply is approximately 24 billion units with a current block reward of 103.83 KAS, while the price of the cryptocurrency is USD 0.1761.
Like Bitcoin, Kaspa is an open source, decentralized Layer 1 protocol that uses proof-of-work as a consensus mechanism. However, it allows multiple blocks to be processed simultaneously instead of one every ten minutes, as seen below. That’s why, offers higher returns for miners, something that attracted Marathon.
“The Kaspa network currently processes one block every second, resulting in faster transactions and giving Kaspa miners the opportunity to potentially earn more block rewards in a given period of time,” he explained.
Marathon revealed that, for just over a year, they have been evaluating Kaspa as a potential way to diversify their incomewhile continuing to use its current infrastructure and expertise in digital asset computing.
“Our analysis has shown that diversifying into alternative digital assets can strengthen returns in a bull market while mitigating losses in a bear market,” the mining giant said.
Marathon has already mined more than 90 million KAS
The company began mining this cryptocurrency in September 2023 and, since then, they have been increasing their operations in this activity. For now, has mined 93 million KASwhich are currently valued at around USD 15 million.
The ASICs to mine the cryptocurrency are being implemented in their Texas facilities, although they warn that the project is not yet fully operational. They hope to complete activation by the third quarter of 2024 and could account for 16% of Kaspa’s hash rate.
“While we strongly believe in the long-term viability of Bitcoin and expect transaction fees to sustain mining revenue, we are looking for new avenues for growth. Kaspa mining is just one of many efforts behind this priority,” he concluded.
Marathon currently has a capitalization of USD 5.47 billion and is listed on the Nasdaq exchange under the ticker MARA. A month ago, the company’s shares were integrated into the S&P SmallCap 600 index fund.
After the announcement of the large mining company, KAS price saw a 10% riseapproaching the all-time high of USD 0.1919 that it recorded two weeks ago. With such a rise, it is now trading 8% below that record, as shown in the chart.
Meanwhile, bitcoin continues to sideways around USD 61,000, a level it has maintained for the last week. In this way, as CriptoNoticias reported, it remains within the consolidation range below the historical maximum of USD 73,700 that it reached more than three months ago.
