Kaspa surges as Marathon Digital mines $16m KAS to diversify revenue

KAS, the native token of proof-of-work cryptocurrency Kaspa, rose 13% after leading Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital announced that it had issued over $16 million in tokens to diversify from Bitcoin.

Marathon Digital announced on June 26 that the move allows the firm to “take advantage of the higher margins” available with Kaspa mining machines, which can be as high as 95% in some cases.

Today we are announcing that we are actively mining Kaspa.

Diversification has been key to our investments in energy solutions and technological innovations, and digital assets remain important in our computing operations. Read the full press release: https://t.co/rwiXIJCx7q

— MARA (@MarathonDH) June 26, 2024

At the time of writing, KAS has experienced a 145% increase in trading volume and a 10% increase in price in the last 24 hours. The crypto asset is up 20% in the last 7 days and 26% in the last 30 days, indicating an optimistic outlook for the altcoin this month.

According to CoinMarketCap data, Kaspa currently ranks 24th on the global cryptocurrency list with a trading price of $0.1759, a circulating supply of approximately 24.035 billion KAS tokens, and a market cap of $4.2 billion.

KAS 24-hour price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

Kaspa is a cryptocurrency that aims to provide a high-performance, scalable and secure blockchain platform.

The distinguishing feature of the Layer-1 protocol is the use of the GhostDAG protocol, a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism that allows for faster block times and higher transaction throughput than typical blockchains.

Unlike Bitcoin, GhostDAG allows multiple blocks to be produced simultaneously. According to Marathon, this approach speeds up transactions and increases block rewards for miners.

Marathon’s chief growth officer, Adam Swick, stated that Kaspa mining allows the company to create a diversified revenue stream from Bitcoin, emphasizing that it is “directly tied to Bitcoin.” [their] core competencies in digital asset accounting.”

Marathon began mining Kaspa in September last year after bringing its first mining computer online.

The Bitcoin mining giant purchased approximately 60 petahash KS3, KS5 and KS5 Pro ASICs to mine Kaspa tokens. Half of it is currently operational, with the rest planned to be commissioned in the third quarter.

The company mined 93 million KAS, whose value is estimated at approximately $16 million.

The price of the Kaspa token has increased by nearly 50% this year, while the price of Bitcoin has increased by 44%.

Bitcoin miners are looking for ways to diversify their income during the crypto winter, and the recent halving has increased competition. Many miners have begun using their existing infrastructure to support artificial intelligence (AI) and other computing demands.

Meanwhile, some miners like Marathon have chosen to leverage Bitcoin’s additional layers to increase their earnings.