The Marathon Patent Group announced Monday that it had purchased 4,813 bitcoins valued at $ 150 million. The company joins the growing list of public companies that keep Bitcoin in their coffers.
Marathon chairman and CEO Merrick Okamoto said the Nasdaq firm is buying bitcoin (BTC) as reserve assets.
“We … believe that holding some of our treasury reserves in Bitcoin is a better long-term strategy than holding US dollars, much like other forward-thinking companies like Microstrategy,” Okamoto said in a statement.
“By purchasing $ 150 million worth of Bitcoin, we have accelerated the process of building Marathon into what we believe to be a de facto investment decision for individuals and institutions looking to invest in this new asset class,” he added.
Marathon, who is already in the BTC mining industry, bought the dip and paid an average of $ 31,135 per bitcoin. The deal was closed by crypto financial services company New York Digital Investment Group (NYDIG) and closed on January 21.
Bitcoin prices fell below $ 30,000 last week but bounced back to $ 32,000 to $ 34,000. At the time of writing, BTC is trading with a handle of $ 32,000 per unit.
In early January, Marathon raised $ 250 million in a stock round, but that wasn’t used to purchase the BTC. Okamoto announced that the purchase of Bitcoin was funded with $ 425 million in internal cash, industry media reported.
As a miner, Marathon currently produces up to two bitcoins per day but now plans to expand with the purchase of 103,000 advanced S19 bitcoin miners from Bitmain. Okamoto said the miners are expected to be delivered and fully installed by the end of the first quarter of 2022.
“If all miners were up and running today, we would be producing around 55 to 60 bitcoins per day based on the current difficulty of the Bitcoin network,” he said. “However, by using our cash on hand to invest in Bitcoin now, we have turned our potential to be a mere investment into a reality.”
In October, Marathon announced a joint venture agreement with Beowulf Energy that will cut the cost of electricity for mining Bitcoin by 38%. Marathon’s shares fell 0.44% to $ 18.22 on Monday. The stock is up more than 56% since Jan. 1.
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