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- Marathon Patent Group announced the purchase 4,812.66 BTC on Monday.
- The transaction, handled by NYDIG, was worth $150 million.
- By the end of the first quarter of 2022, bitcoin miner Marathon expects to own and operate over 100,000 bitcoin miners.
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Cryptocurrency miner Marathon Patent Group announced on Monday it purchased $150 million of bitcoin after the cryptocurrency fell from historic highs of over $40,000.
The company bought 4,812.66 BTC at an implied average price of $31,167.79 per coin in the transaction, which was enabled by NYDIG, a leading technology, and financial services firm dedicated to bitcoin.
“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,” said Merrick Okamoto, Marathon’s chairman & CEO.
“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.”
MicroStrategy, a business intelligence, mobile software, and cloud-based services company, has been leading the charge into bitcoin for some time. The company announced yet another purchase of roughly 314 bitcoins for $10 million on Monday.
That purchase brought MicroStrategy's total holdings to 70,784 bitcoins worth some $2.38 billion at current prices. The company has now netted over $1 billion from its bitcoin investments after buying the currency at an average price of $16,035 per coin.
While Marathon doesn't boast the same level of bitcoin wealth just yet, the company is currently contracted to purchase 103,060 bitcoin miners, which will be operational by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022.
At today's bitcoin mining difficulty rate, that would mean Marathon could produce a potential 55-60 bitcoins per day.
This news comes after bitcoin spiked through early January to a record-high of nearly $42,000 per coin, before profit-taking and bearish news dragged prices down.
The cryptocurrency struggled last week after a BitMEX Research report suggested a flaw allowed for a "double-spend," when a user ends up being allowed to spend the same bitcoin twice.
Commentary from Treasury Secretary-designate Janet Yellen also hurt bitcoin's momentum. On Wednesday, the former Federal Reserve chairwoman said the government should consider regulating cryptocurrencies to prevent their use in illicit financing.
The pace of flows into the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust also "appears to have peaked," according to JPMorgan strategists led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou.
"At the moment, the institutional flow impulse behind the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust is not strong enough for Bitcoin to break out above $40,000. The near-term balance of risks is still skewed to the downside," JPMorgan strategists said, per Bloomberg.
Despite the bearish tone from JPMorgan and falling bitcoin prices, Marathon, MicroStrategy, and others are staying the course when it comes to the cryptocurrency, buying up reserves when they can.
Shares of Marathon Patent were down 2.13% on Monday as of 3:27 PM EST, giving the crypto miner a market cap of $1.68 billion.