Kaspa, the native cryptocurrency of the Kaspa blockchain, has experienced a significant surge of 13% in the last 24 hours following the news that Bitcoin mining giant Marathon Digital has started mining this altcoin. The price of Kaspa (KAS) is currently trading at $0.1792 with a market cap of $4.3 billion, placing it among the top 25 cryptocurrencies. The daily trading volume for Kaspa has also seen a massive increase of 132% to $141 million, indicating strong investor interest and trading activity. The price of Kaspa is close to its all-time high levels, leading to speculation that it could continue to rise in a price discovery phase.
Marathon Digital’s decision to start mining Kaspa was announced on June 26, with the company noting that Kaspa is a fully scalable, decentralized, and open-source Layer-1 protocol that uses the proof-of-work consensus mechanism. Unlike Bitcoin, which produces one block every ten minutes, Kaspa utilizes the BlockDAG architecture to generate multiple blocks simultaneously, allowing for faster transactions. The Kaspa blockchain can process one block per second, leading to increased block rewards for miners. This unique feature may have motivated Marathon Digital to explore mining Kaspa as a means of diversifying its revenue stream. Kaspa currently ranks as the fifth-largest proof-of-work network by market cap, with a block reward of 103.83 KAS.
Last year, Marathon Digital began evaluating Kaspa as a potential revenue diversification strategy and started deploying ASICS in September 2023. The company acquired 60 petahash of KS3, KS5, and KS5 Pro ASICs, which have the potential to generate profits with margins of up to 95% based on network difficulty and KAS price. Approximately 30 petahash of Marathon’s Kaspa ASICs are currently operational in Texas, with full deployment expected by Q3 2024. Marathon has mined a total of 93 million KAS so far, valued at $15 million. Adam Swick, Marathon’s chief growth officer, highlighted the company’s ability to mine Kaspa as a way to diversify revenue and capitalize on higher margins, given its infrastructure, relationships with hardware manufacturers, balance sheet strength, and team expertise.
In conclusion, the partnership between Marathon Digital and Kaspa reflects a growing interest in alternative cryptocurrencies and the potential for revenue diversification in the mining sector. The surge in Kaspa’s price and trading volume indicates strong market demand and investor confidence in the project. As Marathon continues to expand its mining operations for Kaspa, the cryptocurrency’s value and market cap are likely to increase further, driving growth and innovation in the blockchain industry. With Kaspa’s unique scalability and faster transaction processing, it presents an attractive investment opportunity for miners and investors looking to capitalize on the growing crypto market.
