Marathon Digital (MARA) shares surged by almost 18% to $20.67 on Monday, May 6, as reported by Google Finance.
The stock price has risen by 25.2% since the Bitcoin halving on April 20, when miner block rewards were reduced from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, valued at $198,000 at current rates.
The announcement by S&P Dow Jones Indices on May 3 after trading confirmed that Marathon would replace Aaon, a heating and ventilation manufacturing firm, in the index on May 8..
Following the news, Marathon Digital’s (MARA) shares rallied nearly 18% to $20.67 on Monday, May 6, according to Google Finance.
Despite these gains, MARA is down 9.86% year-to-date, having reached a 2024 high of $31.03 on Feb. 28. With a market cap of $5.6 million, Marathon is expected to be one of the larger-weighted stocks in the S&P SmallCap 600, as the index uses a float-adjusted market cap weighting method.
Marathon’s addition to the index comes just ahead of its first-quarter earnings report on May 9. Investment research firm Zacks anticipates a significant year-on-year (YOY) revenue increase of 280% to $193.9 million, with earnings per share expected to jump 166.7% YOY to $0.02.
On May 6, shares of Marathon’s rival Bitcoin mining firms also saw gains, with CleanSpark (CLSK) and TeraWulf (WULF) rising by nearly 8% and 10.7% respectively, according to Companies Market Cap
These increases in Bitcoin mining stocks coincide with a decrease in miner revenue following the halving, although transaction fees have helped offset this decline, remaining above 3.125 BTC for the first few hundred blocks post-halving before falling to around 0.2 BTC to 1 BTC at block 842,350, according to mempool.space data.
The rise in Bitcoin mining stocks is happening at the same time as miners are earning less money because of the halving. After the halving, transaction fees were high, which helped make up for the reduced block subsidy.
But now, transaction fees have gone down. They are currently between 0.2 BTC and 1 BTC at block 842,350, according to data from mempool.space.
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