Marathon Digital becomes most traded stock of the day, $3.3B in volume

Trading volumes for Bitcoin (BTC) miner Marathon Digital stocks have topped the charts for U. S. mid and large-cap stocks just weeks ahead of an anticipated approval of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Over the last 24 hours, the publicly traded firm has seen more than 105 million shares worth of trading volume, beating the blue-chip stocks including Tesla, Apple, and Amazon, according to Yahoo Finance market data.

Fellow Bitcoin miner Riot Platforms stands as the sixth most-traded stock on the chart, with more than 40 million shares traded over the last day.

The uptick in trading activity on Bitcoin mining stocks comes amid a renewed push from mining firms to expand their operations ahead of an expected approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in early January as well as the Bitcoin halving in April.

On Dec. 19, Marathon announced plans to purchase two mining centers for $179 million, a move that will see an additional 390 megawatts of mining capacity added to its existing 584-megawatt output.

Two weeks earlier, Riot Platforms acquired an additional $291 million worth of Bitcoin mining rigs, marking the largest increase in the hash rate in the firm’s history.

While Bitcoin has enjoyed outsized growth throughout 2023 — up more than 163% from the beginning of this year — shares in Bitcoin miners have vastly outperformed that of the market-leading cryptocurrency.

Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms have posted a whopping respective gains of 767% and 452% year-to-date, according to data from TradingView.

The largest publicly traded crypto exchange, Coinbase, has also enjoyed healthy tailwinds, gaining more than 450% since the beginning of 2023.

Still reeling from the collapse of FTX and numerous other high-profile meltdowns in 2022, crypto-related stocks began the year as a popular short trade.

However, traders looking to bet against the crypto sector may have gotten more than they bargained for, with more than $6 billion worth of crypto-related shorts being liquidated so far this year.