Marathon has mined 9 million of KAS tokens since Sept. 2023, valued at about $15 million.
The miner has brought 30 petahash worth of machines online to mine Kaspa, while 30 more will be starting by the third quarter.
Bitcoin (BTC) miner Marathon Digital (MARA) is now a multi-coin crypto miner, after it started mining layer 1 protocol Kaspa (KAS) to diversify its mining revenue.
Kaspa uses a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism called GHOSTDAG protocol, and unlike bitcoin, it allows multiple blocks to be produced simultaneously. This process helps make transactions faster and provides more block rewards for miners, according to a statement from Marathon.
“By mining Kaspa, we are able to create a stream of revenue that is diversified from Bitcoin, and that is directly tied to our core competencies in digital asset compute,” said Adam Swick, Marathon’s chief growth officer in the statement.
The Kaspa token’s price has risen nearly 50% this year, while bitcoin climbed 44%. The broader CoinDesk 20 index is up nearly 16% in the same time period.
Marathon started mining Kaspa in September of last year after bringing the first mining computer online. The miner has bought 60 petahash worth of mining machines that can generate profit margins of up to 95%, according to the statement. Marathon has 30 mining rigs operational in its Texas sites; the rest will be online by the third quarter. The company has mined 93 million KAS, which is valued at about $15 million.
Bitcoin miners have been looking to diversify their revenue after crypto winter, and recent halving has made the industry more competitive. Many miners have pivoted to using their current infrastructure to allow for artificial intelligence (AI) and other computing needs. Meanwhile, some miners, including Marathon, have opted to monetize other layers of bitcoin to earn extra revenue.