2021 has been the year of a fundamental shift in Bitcoin interest, with various institutions — namely publicly-traded US companies — buying up Bitcoin in droves. It started with MicroStrategy and Square, and continues today with Marathon Patent Group.
Marathon Patent Group, Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) (“Marathon” or “Company“), one of the largest enterprise Bitcoin self-mining companies in North America, today announced that it has purchased 4,812.66 BTC in an aggregate purchase price of $150 million. As a result, the Company has strengthened its position as one of the only Nasdaq-listed, pure-play investment options for individuals and institutions seeking exposure to Bitcoin.
This makes Marathan Patent Group the latest publicly-traded company to basically turn itself into a Bitcoin ETF. MicroStrategy’s Bitcoin holdings are already a source of (unrealized) profit larger than their annual revenues.
In fact, Marathon name-dropped MicroStrategy in their announcement.
“We also believe that holding part of our Treasury reserves in Bitcoin will be a better long-term strategy than holding US Dollars, similar to other forward-thinking companies like MicroStrategy,” said Merrick Okamoto, Marathon’s chairman & CEO.