Marathon Digital Holdings Announces Kaspa Mining

Marathon Digital Holdings, Inc. has announced its initiative to mine Kaspa (KAS), a proof-of-work (PoW) digital asset, as part of its strategy to diversify its portfolio in digital asset computing. Kaspa currently ranks fifth by market capitalization among proof-of-work digital assets, boasting a market cap of $3.9 billion with a daily trading volume of approximately $64.8 million as of June 25, 2024.

With a circulating supply of around 24 billion KAS and a block reward currently set at 103.83 KAS, the terminal supply of Kaspa is capped at 28.7 billion KAS. Similar to Bitcoin, Kaspa operates as an open-source, decentralized Layer-1 protocol utilizing proof-of-work as its consensus mechanism. However, it differs from Bitcoin by employing a BlockDAG (Directed Acyclic Graph), allowing for the simultaneous production of multiple blocks.

The Kaspa network achieves faster transaction processing, currently handling one block per second, which enhances potential earnings for Kaspa miners. Marathon Digital Holdings began exploring Kaspa’s potential in May 2023 to diversify revenue streams while leveraging existing infrastructure and expertise in digital asset computing. Following the successful deployment of its first Kaspa ASICs in September 2023, the company has been scaling its operations.

Marathon has acquired approximately 60 petahash of KS3, KS5, and KS5 Pro ASICs, each estimated by ASIC Miner Value to yield up to 95% profit margins under current network difficulty rates and KAS prices. Currently, 30 petahash of Marathon’s Kaspa ASICs are operational in self-owned facilities in Texas, with the remainder expected to be fully operational by the third quarter of 2024. As of June 25, 2024, Marathon has mined 93 million KAS, valued at approximately $15 million.

Adam Swick, Marathon’s chief growth officer, remarked, “Mining Kaspa enables us to diversify revenue streams beyond Bitcoin, aligning with our core competencies in digital asset computing. Leveraging our infrastructure, strategic hardware partnerships, robust balance sheet, and team expertise, Marathon is uniquely positioned to capitalize on Kaspa’s higher margins available to early ASIC adopters. We remain committed to fostering innovation in proof-of-work ecosystems and expanding our leadership in digital asset computing.”