More institutional adoption as Marathon Patent Group purchases $150M in Bitcoin

Nevada-based crypto mining firm Marathon Patent Group has invested $150 million in Bitcoin as a reserve asset.

Marathon announced today that it has purchased more than 4,812 Bitcoin (BTC) for $150 million through the New York Digital Investment Group — an average price of $31,168 per coin. Chairman and CEO Merrick Okamoto said the move was “a better long-term strategy than holding US Dollars,” comparing the Bitcoin purchase to companies like MicroStrategy, the business intelligence firm that made an initial $425-million crypto investment last year and has since bought more coins.

Okamoto said:

“By purchasing $150 million worth of Bitcoin, we have accelerated the process of building Marathon into what we believe to be the de facto investment choice for individuals and institutions who are seeking exposure to this new asset class."

The company expanded its operations significantly in 2020 in an apparent effort to become North America’s largest Bitcoin miner, installing Whatsminer M30S+ ASICs in June 2020 and purchasing 10,000 Antminer S-19 rigs in October 2020. Okamoto said that Marathon was expecting to have more than 100,000 miners “delivered and fully deployed” by the end of the first quarter of 2022.

“If all miners were operational today, based on the Bitcoin network’s current difficulty rate, we would produce approximately 55-60 bitcoins per day,” the CEO said. “However, by leveraging our cash on hand to invest in Bitcoin now, we have transformed our potential to be a pure-play investment into a reality.“

The crypto mining firm bought the dip, as its Bitcoin purchase reportedly came just before the coin rose back above $34,000 after falling below $30,000 last week. At the time of publication, the price of Bitcoin is $34,461, having risen more than 7% in the last 24 hours.