In anticipation of the next halving event in April, institutional participation and speculation drove the price of bitcoin higher on Thursday, pushing it back above $62,500. Wednesday saw the leading cryptocurrency in the world reach a new peak that exceeded two years before quickly declining. In other news, when the Q4 report was released late on Wednesday, bitcoin miner Marathon Digital fell on Thursday morning. Digital currency Coinbase faltered following technical problems brought on by a significant surge in traffic.
Bitcoin Reaches New Heights of Two Years
After rising as high as $64,037 on Wednesday, it traded about $62,600 on Thursday, moving away from late 2021 highs. Based on data from CoinDesk, the largest cryptocurrency in the world increased in value by almost 5% in the past day. In mid-February, the market capitalization of bitcoin exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in over two years.
With the launch of the spot bitcoin ETF in early January, the majority of this year’s gains in bitcoin have been 49%. The cryptocurrency is currently selling around 10% below its peak from November 2021, which was $68,990.
Ethereum continued its ascent versus the levels of April 2022 on Thursday morning, reaching a high of $3,520 before closing at $3,440. 2024 saw a 54% increase in the second-ranked cryptocurrency.
Together, the recently introduced spot bitcoin ETFs increased by more than 3.5% early on Thursday. The ETF’s shares generally increased by around 6% on Wednesday.
Since the inception of the spot coin ETFs on January 11, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) has been the undisputed leader in fund inflows, with around $7.15 billion in inflows as of the end of day on February 28, as per BitMEX Research statistics. With $4.72 billion in inflows, the Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund (FBTC) comes in second. At $1.563 billion, the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF (BITB) comes in second, with inflows of roughly $1.114 billion, followed by the ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF (ARKB), which is ranked third.
As of February 28, withdrawals from Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) had decreased to a level close to $7.8 billion. Given Grayscale’s greater management charge in comparison to its new competitors, some of the outflows might be the result of that. Other spot bitcoin ETFs have lowered their management fees to about 0.3%, but GBTC still charges 1.5%. Though iShares Bitcoin Trust is second with $9.147 billion in assets under management, Grayscale is still the leader in terms of total assets under management.
However, BitMEX Research reports that since its inception, the new ETFs have seen inflows totaling $7.399 billion, notwithstanding GBTC’s withdrawals.
Digital Marathon Earnings
After reporting a loss of $3.13 per share a year earlier, Marathon Digital (MARA) blew past FactSet projections of 9 cents per share with Q4 earnings of 66 cents. To surpass estimates of $153.6 million, revenue jumped 452% to $156.8 million. Marathon’s Q4 loss of two cents per share, which fell short of FactSet’s estimated EPS of four cents, was caused by the new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) accounting standards for cryptocurrency assets.
Bitcoin production increased 172% to 4,242 in the fourth quarter.
In order to pay for operating expenses, Marathon reported that it sold 56% of the bcoin it produced during the quarter.
Marathon’s hash rate increased by 253% to 24.7 exahash per second (EH/s), which propelled the year-over-year surge in bcoin production to 12,852 BTC, or 210% more. What’s needed to mine bcoin is called the hash rate. In 2024, Marathon Digital aims to increase its hash rate to 35 to 37 EH/s, and by the end of 2025, it wants to reach 50 EH/s, according to CEO Fred Thiel.
Additionally, the business announced the release of Anduro, a platform that lets developers and other enthusiasts in the cryptocurrency space make their own applications by utilizing the bitcoin network.
Marathon said on February 5 that it produced 1,084 bitcoins in January, up 58% from the previous year but down 42% from December. Transaction fees decreased, causing a 14% month-over-month drop in total network rewards. Marathon Digital had 15,741 unrestricted bitcoins as of January 31. At month’s conclusion, Marathon’s aggregate unrestricted cash and bitcoin holdings were $988.7 million.
Early on Thursday, MARA’s stock dropped by almost 9%. After rising more than 8% in the premarket on Wednesday, shares reduced their gains to 2.4% during trading on Wednesday.
Up about 81% throughout the previous month, Marathon Digital’s stock surged until Wednesday’s closing.
Coinbase Is Headed into Traffic
Early Thursday, Coinbase (COIN) increased by 1.5%. The cryptocurrency exchange reported technical difficulties on Wednesday as a result of an increase in traffic, trimming gains to less than 1%. Before the news on Wednesday morning, COIN stock increased 6.4%.
Coinbase Support stated at approximately 12:50 p.m. ET, “We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts and may experience errors when buying or selling.” “Our staff is looking into this and will offer you an update soon. Your possessions are secure.”
Retail accounts seemed to be the primary target of the incident, as several customers on social media reported having trouble accessing their accounts or using the Coinbase app.
CEO Brian Armstrong wrote on X, the social networking platform that was once known as Twitter, saying, “We are dealing with a LARGE surge of traffic— apologies for any issues you encounter.” “The team is working to remediate.”