Marathon Patent Group is a Nasdaq-listed crypto mining company.

In one stroke, Marathon Patent Group (NASDAQ: MARA), a crypto mining company, has pivoted to become a listed, pure-play option for investors seeking a proxy investment for bitcoin. The company announced today that it had bought 4,812.66 BTC at an aggregate purchase price of $150 million. It made the investment through NYDIG, the bitcoin-dedicated, financial and technology services company. (Intrado GlobeNewswire)

Marathon escaping the U.S. dollar

“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. 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,” said Merrick Okamoto, Marathon’s chairman & CEO, in a statement.

2022 – brought forward

Okamoto added: “To date, we have contracted to purchase 103,060 miners, all of which are currently expected to be delivered and fully deployed by the end of the first quarter of fiscal 2022.”

“If all miners were operational today, based on the bitcoin network’s current difficulty rate, we would produce approximately 55-60 bitcoins per day. However, by leveraging our cash on hand to invest in Bitcoin now, we have transformed our potential to be a pure-play investment into a reality.”

MicroStrategy

Okamoto alludes to MicroStrategy (NASDAQ: MSTR) in his statement. The business intelligence firm was one of the pioneering listed companies that chose to invest their treasury reserves in bitcoin. Its intention: to escape the debasement of the dollar and the resultant depreciation of its cash holdings.

MicroStrategy announced Friday an investment of  $10 million in bitcoin. It commenced buying bitcoin in August. According to CoinDesk, the company now holds 70,784 coins. That stash is worth about $2.39 billion at current prices. Bitcoin is trading around $33,775 at the time of writing.

The rally in bitcoin has boosted the value of MSTR’s bitcoin holding. That in turn, caused a surge in its stock price.

The stock has gained 305.22% over the past year, according to MarketWatch.

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