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Cryptocurrency-focused stocks like Marathon Digital (MARA) and Coinbase Global (COIN) are climbing in Monday afternoon trading as bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD), the two largest digital tokens by market cap, inch higher over the past 24 hours.
In the midst of a mixed stock market session, bitcoin (BTC-USD +0.6%) is edging higher to $38.7K intraday and ether (ETH-USD +0.5%) is up to $2.82K.
April numbers for a couple of mining companies came out early Monday. Bitfarms‘ (BITF) average daily bitcoin (BTC-USD) production climbed 15% M/M, and BitNile (NILE) had mined 10% more BTC.
For crypto-specific news, Marathon Digital (MARA) was said to be turning to the options market in an effort to raise money. MARA could just outright sell some of their BTC stash, but that probably won’t happen since the company embraces “hodling.” Generally, most publicly traded firms raise capital by selling debt/equity or borrowing through a bank, so Marathon Digital’s move is far from usual. Specifically, MARA is selling bitcoin (BTC-USD) call options and “we use call option straddles, where essentially you sell a call option and then buy one at a higher price so that you don’t miss out on the upside,” said MARA CEO, as reported by Bloomberg. “Historically, it has generated more than 10% annually,” he added. The main risk here is if bitcoin (BTC-USD) doesn’t hit a particular exercise price by the maturity date, MARA starts losing money.
Looking at crypto miner stocks’ intraday price action, Marathon Digital (MARA +7.3%), Greenidge Generation (GREE +6.1%), Bitfarms (BITF +5.9%) and Riot Blockchain (RIOT +6.5%) are making the biggest upswings so far. SOS (SOS +34.7%), HIVE Blockchain (HIVE +3.4%), BIT Mining (BTCM +4.2%), CleanSpark (CLSK +4.6%) and Bit Digital (BTBT +6.2%).
At Berkshire Hathaway’s annual shareholder meeting April 30, Warren Buffett said “if you offered me all the world’s bitcoin for $25, I wouldn’t take it.“