More than 105 million shares of Marathon Digital have been traded in the last 24 hours, beating Tesla, Apple, and Amazon.
miner Marathon Digital stocks have topped the charts for U.S. mid and large-cap stocks just weeks ahead of an anticipated approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Over the last 24 hours, the publicly traded firm has seen more than 105 million shares worth of trading volume, beating the blue-chip stocks including Tesla, Apple, and Amazon, according to Yahoo Finance market data.
Fellow Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms stands as the sixth most-traded stock on the chart, with more than 40 million shares traded over the last day.
The uptick in trading activity on Bitcoin mining stocks comes amid a renewed push from mining firms to expand their operations ahead of an expected approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in early January as well as the Bitcoin halving in April.
On Dec. 19, Marathon announced plans to purchase two mining centers for $179 million, a move that will see an additional 390 megawatts of mining capacity added to its existing 584-megawatt output.
Two weeks earlier, Riot Platforms acquired an additional $291 million worth of Bitcoin mining rigs, marking the largest increase in the hash rate in the firm’s history.
While Bitcoin has enjoyed outsized growth throughout 2023 — up more than 163% from the beginning of this year — shares in Bitcoin miners have vastly outperformed that of the market-leading cryptocurrency.
Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms have posted a whopping respective gains of 767% and 452% year-to-date, according to data from TradingView.
The largest publicly traded crypto exchange, Coinbase, has also enjoyed healthy tailwinds, gaining more than 450% since the beginning of 2023.
Still reeling from the collapse of FTX and numerous other high-profile meltdowns in 2022, crypto-related stocks began the year as a popular short trade.
However, traders looking to bet against the crypto sector may have gotten more than they bargained for, with more than $6 billion worth of crypto-related shorts being liquidated so far this year.