Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA), a digital asset company, has become the latest institutional investor to invest in Bitcoin. As one of the first NASDAQ-listed cryptocurrency mining companies, it’s no surprise to see this institutional investment in Bitcoin now taking place.
The company announced that it has purchased 4,812.66 BTC for a total of $150 million through the New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG). This amounts to an average purchase price of $31,168 per BTC.
Marathon Chairman and CEO, Merrick Okamoto, said:
“By purchasing $150 million worth of Bitcoin, we have accelerated the process of building Marathon into what we believe to be the de facto investment choice for individuals and institutions who are seeking exposure to this new asset class”.
Okamoto further revealed that the recent purchase may have been inspired by MicroStrategy:
“We also believe that holding part of our Treasury reserves in Bitcoin will be a better long-term strategy than holding US Dollars, similar to other forward-thinking companies like MicroStrategy.”
Marathon Patent Group just purchased $150M in Bitcoin most likely getting the inspiration from @michael_saylor and @MicroStrategy .
Since adding #Bitcoin to the Micro Strategy reserves the stock price of MIGA (MicroStrategy) has skyrocketed.
Others will take notice. pic.twitter.com/L3ERpsyAd5
— Tytan Inc. (@Tytaninc) January 25, 2021
MicroStrategy currently holds a total of 70,784 BTC, worth around $2.38 billion at current market prices. With an average purchase price of $16,035 per BTC, the software intelligence company has now made over $1 billion in unrealised profits from its Bitcoin investment.
While Marathon is yet to boast such enormous profits, the company has contracted to purchase 103,060 miners, all of which are currently expected to be delivered and fully operational by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
Based on the Bitcoin network’s current mining difficulty rate, if all of these miners were operational today, the company would be able to mine approximately 55-60 Bitcoin per day.
Feature image by fatima khatun from flickr
