Bitcoin on Thursday surged back above $62,500 as it powers higher on an influx of institutional participation and speculation ahead of the upcoming halving event in April. The world's top crypto on Wednesday hit another more than two-year high before a quick reversal. Elsewhere, bitcoin miner Marathon Digital tumbled Thursday morning following late Wednesday's Q4 report. Crypto exchange Coinbase stumbled after technical issues caused by a big spike in traffic.
Bitcoin Notches New Two-Year High
Bitcoin on Thursday traded around $62,600 after surging on Wednesday as high as $64,037 — trading against highs from late 2021. The world's largest cryptocurrency jumped more than 5% over the last 24 hours, according to CoinDesk data. Bitcoin's market capitalization crossed the $1 trillion mark in mid-February for the first time in more than two years.
Bitcoin is now up 49% so far this year, with most of the gains coming after the spot bitcoin ETF launches in early January. The crypto is trading about 10% below its all-time-high of $68,990 from November 2021.
Ethereum Thursday morning rose further against April 2022 levels, trading around $3,440 after climbing as high as $3,520. The No. 2 crypto has spiked about 54% in 2024.
The newly-launched spot bitcoin ETFs early Thursday collectively swung more than 3.5% higher. On Wednesday, the ETF shares broadly surged nearly 6%.
BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust has been the clear leader in fund inflows since the spot bitcoin ETFs launched Jan. 11 with roughly $7.15 billion in inflows as of end of day Feb. 28, according to BitMEX Research data. The Fidelity Wise Origin Bitcoin Fund ranks second at $4.72 billion in inflows. The ARK 21Shares Bitcoin ETF ranks third at $1.563 billion, followed by the Bitwise Bitcoin ETF with about $1.114 billion in inflows.
Grayscale Bitcoin Trust has recorded nearly $7.8 billion in outflows as of Feb. 28, which have steadily slowed.
A large chunk of the outflows are due to remaining impacts from the crypto winter in 2022. FTX at the end of January liquidated its GBTC position and sold about $1 billion worth of shares as part of its bankruptcy proceedings, CoinDesk previously reported. Elsewhere, a U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Feb. 14 approved bankrupt crypto lender Genesis to sell $1.6 billion in GBTC shares in an effort to repay creditors, Reuters reported.
"The Grayscale team anticipated GBTC's diverse shareholder base would engage in profit-taking and deploy investment strategies that would impact the Trust's flows, and we are pleased that outflows have continued to stabilize - especially against forced selling from estate bankruptcies," said Jennifer Rosenthal, vice president of communications at Grayscale. "With market-leading liquidity, strong trading volume, and an unparalleled track record, we expect GBTC will continue to be a primary capital markets risk transfer tool for bitcoin."
Still, Grayscale remains the leader in terms of assets, with $26.429 billion in assets under management, followed by iShares Bitcoin Trust at $9.147 billion.
Despite GBTC's outflows, the new ETFs have recorded $7.399 billion in inflows since launch, according to BitMEX Research.
Marathon Digital Earnings
Marathon Digital reported Q4 earnings of 66 cents per share, improving from a loss of $3.13 per share a year earlier and blowing past FactSet estimates of 9 cents per share. Revenue leapt 452% to $156.8 million to beat forecasts of $153.6 million. Excluding impacts from new Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) accounting rules for crypto assets, Marathon had a Q4 loss of 2 cents per share, which missed FactSet EPS expectations of 4 cents.
Fourth-quarter bitcoin production leapt 172% to 4,242. Marathon noted it sold 56% of the bitcoin it produced during the quarter to fund operating costs.
Full-year bitcoin production soared 210% to 12,852 BTC, driven by a 253% in Marathon's hash rate to 24.7 exahash per second (EH/s). The hash rate is the computational power required to mine bitcoin. Marathon Digital CEO Fred Thiel said the company plans to grow its hash rate to 35 to 37 EH/s in 2024 and improve to 50 EH/s by the end of 2025.
The company also announced the launch of Anduro, a platform built on the bitcoin network that allows developers and members of the crypto community to create their own applications.
Marathon produced 1,084 bitcoins in January, up 58% year-over-year but down 42% from December, the company announced Feb. 5. Total network rewards fell 14% month-over-month, driven by a decline in transaction fees. As of Jan. 31, Marathon Digital held a total of 15,741 unrestricted bitcoin. Marathon's combined unrestricted cash and bitcoin holdings totaled $988.7 million at month-end.
MARA stock fell nearly 9% early Thursday. Shares pared gains to 2.4% during trade Wednesday after leaping more than 8% premarket Wednesday.
Marathon Digital stock bolted nearly 81% over the past month through Wednesday's close.
Coinbase Stuck In Traffic
Coinbase rose 1.5% early Thursday. On Wednesday the crypto exchange pared gains to less than 1% after reporting technical issues due to a traffic surge. COIN stock advanced 6.4% early Wednesday prior to the announcement.
"We are aware that some users may see a zero balance across their Coinbase accounts and may experience errors in buying or selling," Coinbase Support announced around 12:50 p.m. ET. "Our team is investigating this and will provide an update shortly. Your assets are safe."
The problem appeared to mainly affect retail accounts with various users on social media reporting issues accessing accounts or the Coinbase app.
"We are dealing with a LARGE surge of traffic — apologies for any issues you encounter," CEO Brian Armstrong posted on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter. "The team is working to remediate."
Shares of the crypto exchange on Monday broke out above a buy point.
You can follow Harrison Miller for more stock news and updates on X/Twitter @IBD_Harrison
