Marathon Digital will be the most traded stock of the day, with a volume of $327M
Bitcoin (BTC) miner Marathon Digital Shares topped the U.S. mid-cap and large-cap stocks charts, weeks ahead of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF).
The publicly traded company has seen more than 105 million transactions in the past 24 hours, beating out blue-chip stocks including Tesla, Apple and Amazon, according to Yahoo Finance Markets data.
Fellow Bitcoin miner Riot Platform stands as the sixth most traded stock on the chart, with more than 40 million shares traded on the final day.
The surge in trading activity in Bitcoin mining stocks comes amid a renewed push from mining companies to expand operations ahead of the expected approval of a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in early January and the Bitcoin halving in April.
On December 19, Marathon announced plans to purchase two mining centers for $179 million, a move that would add an additional 390 MW of mining capacity to its current 584 MW of production.
Two weeks ago, Riot Platforms acquired an additional $291 million worth of Bitcoin mining equipment, marking the largest increase in hashrate in the company's history.
As Bitcoin grows by more than 163% in 2023 – the share of Bitcoin miners exceeds that of the market-leading cryptocurrency.
Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms have posted annual gains of 767% and 452%, respectively, according to data from TradingView.
Coinbase, the largest publicly traded crypto exchange, has also experienced a healthy tailwind, gaining more than 450% since the start of 2023.
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Still reeling from the fall of FTX and several other high-profile crashes in 2022, crypto-related stocks started the year as popular short trades.
However, traders looking to bet on the crypto sector may have gotten more than they bargained for, with more than $6 billion worth of crypto-related shorts being issued this year.
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