Author: Faith Yakubu

Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA)

Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. has announced plans to sell $250 million in convertible senior notes, with the proceeds earmarked for acquiring additional Bitcoin. This move aligns with a strategy similar to that of MicroStrategy Inc., which has been increasing its Bitcoin holdings over the years in anticipation of a rise in cryptocurrency prices.

Strategic Moves and Market Impact

Marathon Digita, the largest Bitcoin miner in the U.S., is among several public mining companies that have resumed accumulating Bitcoin following the April ‘halving’ event, which reduced mining revenue. In 2022, many miners had been liquidating their Bitcoin reserves to manage high energy costs and industry challenges. The ‘holding’ strategy, as it’s known in the crypto world, could enhance the market presence of public mining companies as leveraged proxies for Bitcoin prices and potentially boost their stock prices, according to Ethan Vera, Chief Operating Officer at Luxor Technology.

The issuance of convertible notes also introduces the risk of dilution for existing shareholders. On Monday, Marathon’s shares fell by up to 12% to $15, reflecting a 34% drop in stock value for the year, despite Bitcoin’s 40% gain over the same period. As of July 31, Marathon held 20,818 Bitcoin and had a total of $1.6 billion in cash and digital assets. The company reported a nearly $200 million net loss for the second quarter, primarily due to a writedown on its digital asset holdings.

The convertible notes, set to mature in 2031, will be offered in a private placement to institutional investors.

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Top NFT Collections Drive Significant Sales

On August 11, DMarket dominated the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market with an outstanding sales figure of $733,528, according to CryptoSlam data. DMarket, an NFT collection featuring in-game items from popular games such as Counter-Strike and Dota 2, outperformed other collections that day. The Mythos-based collection has achieved an all-time sales volume of $485.22 million, ranking it as the 14th largest collection in the NFT industry.

Other Leading NFT Collections and Blockchain Performance

The second-highest NFT collection for the day was Guild of Guardians Heroes on the Immutable blockchain, with a daily sales volume of $531,721, down slightly from the previous day’s $591,119. The Polygon-based Kgirl collection secured the third position with daily sales of $475,659. Solana NFTs filled the fourth and fifth spots, with DeGods achieving $332,921 and the DogeZuki Collection securing $311,838 in sales.

Despite DMarket’s leading position in sales, the Mythos blockchain did not top blockchain sales rankings. On Sunday, Ethereum emerged as the leading blockchain with $2.7 million in sales, while Solana followed with $1.94 million. Notably, last Thursday, Mythos led all blockchains in sales, with DMarket topping the Ethereum network.

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Hedge funds and institutional traders are aggressively buying back into cryptocurrency call options following one of the most significant sell-offs of bullish positions this year. This renewed interest comes after a weekend liquidation event that saw about $1.1 billion wiped out from crypto bets.

On August 4, Bitcoin fell as much as 17% and Ether lost over 20% of its value, marking one of the worst market downturns of 2024. The sell-off, which started during Asian trading hours, resulted in roughly 50% of open interest in crypto derivatives being liquidated, according to Yevgeniy Feldman from SwapGlobal.

Despite this downturn, Hedge Funds traders are re-entering the market with optimism. They are particularly focused on buying call options that allow them to purchase Bitcoin at strike prices of $90,000 and above later this year. This rebound is reflected in increased demand for Bitcoin on platforms like Coinbase Global Inc., where the bid-to-offer ratio indicates strong buying interest at lower levels.

Short-term hedging has surged on offshore exchanges, with a higher put-to-call ratio observed on Deribit. Retail investors, who frequently use these platforms, are buying more puts as a hedge against further price declines. Conversely, U.S. institutional investors, who typically use over-the-counter (OTC) desks, have shown a bullish bias for the latter part of the year.

The most popular options currently are September $90,000 calls, December $100,000 calls, and March $100,000 calls, which together hold nearly $1 billion in notional value. Bitcoin’s price was around $56,850 on Tuesday, showing a 4.5% increase.

The optimism for a bullish end to the year is partly driven by political factors, including the potential re-election of Donald Trump, a known crypto supporter. As Hedge funds traders look to capitalize on a potential market rebound, the landscape remains volatile but promising for those with a long-term bullish outlook.

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Bitcoin (BTC-USD) has faced a significant pullback, plunging as much as 20% over the weekend to below $50,000—a level not seen since February. However, the cryptocurrency has since rebounded by approximately $6,000, though it remains down 14% over the past week.

Despite this downturn, Bitcoin enthusiasts are maintaining their bullish forecasts. MarketVector’s Martin Leinweber believes that Bitcoin could surpass its previous all-time high of $74,000, potentially reaching between $80,000 and $100,000 by the end of 2024. Onramp Bitcoin’s Mark Connors also reaffirmed his earlier prediction of Bitcoin hitting $110,000 in 2024.

Bitwise Asset Management’s Matt Hougan echoed the optimism, emphasizing that Bitcoin investors are long-term holders, resistant to short-term market fluctuations.

Skeptics, however, have raised concerns about Bitcoin’s performance as a haven asset. Critics argue that Bitcoin’s recent behavior mirrors that of risk assets like technology stocks, challenging its narrative as an uncorrelated store of value.

The recent market correction appears to be linked to broader financial movements, including shifts in the US dollar’s strength relative to the Japanese yen. Additionally, Bitcoin ETFs experienced significant net outflows of $168 million on Monday, with trading volumes doubling compared to previous days.

Fundstrat Global Advisors remains confident, projecting Bitcoin could reach $126,000 in 2024. They view the recent decline as a minor setback rather than a market peak.

As Bitcoin continues to experience volatility, market participants will be closely watching trading flows and the impact of new Bitcoin exchange-traded funds managed by major Wall Street firms.

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Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ) saw its shares spike as much as 17% following the announcement of a new $2 billion high-performance computing (HPC) contract with CoreWeave. The extension of a prior agreement will see Core Scientific host an additional 112 megawatts (MW) of GPUs for CoreWeave, an AI hyperscaler firm. This deal boosts Core Scientific’s expected total revenue from the contract to $6.7 billion, starting in the first half of 2026.

CoreWeave will cover all capital expenditures necessary to upgrade Core Scientific’s existing infrastructure for HPC use. This new deal follows an earlier agreement to provide 200MW of GPU hosting, with subsequent expansions adding 70MW, and now this third extension.

The agreement highlights Core Scientific’s strategic advantage in leveraging its existing infrastructure for HPC and AI needs, which require high-energy data centers. This is a growing market opportunity as demand for advanced data center infrastructure increases.

Core Scientific has also secured options for further contract extensions to host an additional 118MW for HPC computing, underscoring its role in meeting the energy-intensive demands of modern computing.

The company’s ability to adapt its mining infrastructure to support high-performance and AI data centers is seen as a key factor in its current market performance, given the challenges faced by the crypto mining sector amid a prolonged bear market.

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