Tag: Bitcoin Mining

Chart Spotlight: Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA)

Posted on by Ian Cooper

Cryptocurrencies are showing big signs of life again.

Look at Bitcoin, for example. After crashing to a low of $19,097, BTC is now back up to $22,960. Not only is that great news for cryptocurrencies, it’s a strong catalyst for mining stocks, like Marathon Digital Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA).

After all, miners rise and fall with the price of Bitcoin.

Technically, MARA just broke above double top resistance dating back to late May 2022. Now, from a current price of $11.48, we could see a potential bearish gap refill around $16 a share. If Bitcoin can continue to recover, MARA could even retest $30 at some point.

Granted, there are some red flags...

Not only is MARA at its upper Bollinger Band, it’s also over-extended on Williams’ %R, Fast Stochastics, and on Relative Strength. So, there is some concern. However, if Bitcoin can continue to push higher, MARA is sure to follow.

MARA Chart with Trade Triangles

Source: MarketClub

Helping, BTIG analyst Mark Palmer believes Bitcoin could quadruple from current prices to $95,000 by 2023, as noted by U Today.

Changpeng Zhao, the CEO of Binance believes Bitcoin could rally to $70,000 in “a few months or years,” he said, as quoted by The Guardian.

Even the CEO of MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor has been buying weakness in Bitcoin, too.

Fundamentally, there’s a lot to like about MARA, as well.

In the second quarter of 2022, the company produced 707 self-mined Bitcoin, an 8% increase year over year from 654 bitcoin mined in Q2 2021. Year-to-date Marathon Digital produced 1,966 Bitcoin, a 132% increase year over year. In addition, the total number of miners installed and awaiting energization at Texas facilities increased to 29,640 miners.

Marathon Digital also just secured a five-year deal with Applied Blockchain, which builds and operates data centers throughout America.

With that, Marathon “secured approximately 254 megawatts of new hosting arrangements for its Bitcoin mining operations, with an option to increase to 324 megawatts, from a variety of hosting providers. Marathon believes it has now secured ample hosting arrangements to support the Company’s previously stated goal of approximately 23.3 exahashes per second of computing power for Bitcoin mining,” as noted in a company press release.

That’s big news for MARA, and signals that the company will survive the rout.

From a current price of $11.48, I’d like to see the Marathon Digital Holdings stock test $16 a share, near-term. Longer-term, I’d like to see it test $30 again.

Ian Cooper
INO.com Contributor

Disclosure: This contributor did not hold a position in any investment mentioned above at the time this blog post was published. This article is the opinion of the contributor themselves. The above is a matter of opinion provided for general information purposes only and is not intended as investment advice. This contributor is not receiving compensation (other than from INO.com) for their opinion.

The Truth Behind Mining Cryptocurrency

Posted on by Wayne Burritt

If you’re like most of us, when your first heard about cryptocurrencies, you heard about Bitcoin (BTC). And as you waded through the morass of information trying to get a handle on what Bitcoin really was, one of the first big obstacles you ran into was that BTC comes into existence by a process called “mining.”

I thought to myself, “you mean like gold?”

If that stumped you, you’re not alone. I know it did me.

In fact, as I began my cryptocurrency journey, the process of mining became one of the most fascinating – and tricky – concepts to get my head around. I really didn’t know what to believe.
Well, no worries.

In today’s installment, I’ll give you the truth behind mining cryptocurrency. I’ll break down the basics of cryptocurrency mining, what it’s about, how it’s done, and why people do it. And if I’ve done my job, you’ll get a good understanding without a bunch of technical jargon.

Now, if you’re looking for a starter kit on crypto, I recommend taking a look at a high-level explanation of cryptocurrency and why it’s such a big deal. You don’t need those to get a good understanding of what we’ll talk about today, but they may be able to fill in some holes.

First off, some housekeeping items. Continue reading "The Truth Behind Mining Cryptocurrency" →

Chip Maker Hits Target, Beats Rivals and Bitcoin

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Last November I shared a promising trading opportunity to play on the Modern “Gold Rush” For Cryptocoins. Like the Great Gold Rush, I thought that those who sell equipment could benefit from new a “tulip mania” as this crypto buzz was called in the media.

I selected three chip makers, which were well known for the broad use of their products in the “mining” of cryptocoins. These companies are NVIDIA Corporation (NVDA), Advanced Micro Devices, Inc (AMD) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Limited (TSM). Firstly, I made the same comparative chart analysis of their stocks as I usually do for the classic mining stocks; it is funny that the word “mining” I used here has a totally different meaning.

We were on the right path as despite the market euphoria there was one stock, which lagged behind the others and the gap was significant. The laggard Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). It was the only one, which showed the negative price dynamics for the first ten months of 2017 with a -2.71% loss compared to +104.58% for NVDA, +43.94% for TSM and +14.62% for S&P 500. Continue reading "Chip Maker Hits Target, Beats Rivals and Bitcoin" →

Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Rejected Again

Posted on by Matt Thalman

In March of 2017 the Winklevoss twins had their first Bitcoin ETF proposal rejected and now the second Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF proposal was dismissed in July of 2018 by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The reason all of this matter is because the Winklevoss twins where the first to have the SEC rule on a Bitcoin ETF back in 2017, and now that their proposal has been rejected for a second time things are starting to look a little bleak for investors who want a Bitcoin ETF.

First and foremost, the Securities and Exchange Commission that made the ruling expressed concern about Bitcoin’s trading reliability and security; two significant issues which don’t appear to be easy fixes anytime soon. The commission went on to say “The record before the commission indicates that a substantial majority of bitcoin trading occurs on unregulated venues overseas that are relatively new and that, generally, appear to trade only digital assets.” The commission stated that more then 75% of Bitcoin trading happens on unregulated foreign exchanges.

But, the commission did note that regulated Bitcoin markets are in their early stages of development and that if they further grow, the commission would then review the idea of allowing a Bitcoin ETF based on SEC requirements. Continue reading "Winklevoss Bitcoin ETF Rejected Again" →

The Modern Gold Rush: These Three Stocks Could Benefit

Posted on by Aibek Burabayev

Aibek Burabayev - INO.com Contributor - Metals


History repeats again and again as human beings don’t change; they only change on the surface. There is a good lesson learned from the Gold Rush in the 19th century – there were some lucky diggers, who made a fortune, at the same time many merchants who were selling equipment and jeans became rich. But many adventurers left broke.

These days we have the Crypto-Mining Gold Rush led by Bitcoin with a market share of more than 60% and market capitalization over $124 billion. This coin is worth as much as the Hungarian GDP and exceeded the market cap of NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA) – one of those “merchants” selling “shovels” to modern “diggers” aka miners.

Today, as long ago, the competition gives an advantage to cooperated mining pools with the most advanced equipment, lowest electricity, and labor costs. That’s why there is no surprise that the top mining pools are located in China (70% of the Bitcoin hashrate).

There are two main types of suppliers to the crypto mining industry: electricity suppliers (up to 70% of all mining costs) and equipment suppliers. The massive demand for mining equipment attracts nimble middlemen, for instance, they resell the ASICs (application-specific integrated circuits, microchips) for 2x-3x of the original price tag, making relatively risk-free money on modern “diggers” that risk a lot. Continue reading "The Modern Gold Rush: These Three Stocks Could Benefit" →