Shares of cryptocurrency miner Marathon Patent Group Inc. shot up around 20% on Wednesday, helping to make the company the most recent member of the $1 billion digital-mining group, as bitcoin hit a fresh record near $36,000.
Marathon has gained more than 55% so far in January and Wednesday’s rally puts it in league with rival mining company Riot Blockchain RIOT, +7.44%, which boasts a market value of $1.3 billion, having entered the billion-dollar club last month.Digital mining refers to the use of high-powered computers to generate new units of the cryptocurrency, by solving complex problems that have become harder over the years by virtue of how bitcoins were originally encoded.
At last check, a single bitcoin BTCUSD, +4.30% was valued at $34,758, up nearly 2% on the day, but off its intrasession peak at $35,879, FactSet data show. Last year, Marathon Patent shares surged Marathon Patent over 1,000%, as it attempted to grow its mining enterprise.