Crypto miner Marathon Digital's shares fall nearly 18%, on pace for worst day since January

MW Crypto miner Marathon Digital's shares fall nearly 18%, on pace for worst day since January

By Frances Yue

Shares of crypto miner Marathon Digital Holdings fell nearly 18% to as low as $23.07 on Friday afternoon, putting the stock on pace for its worst day since Jan. 18 after logging an impressive rally earlier this month.

Marathon's stock $(MARA)$ rebounded slightly over the course of the afternoon session, but was still down almost 16% to $23.60 as of 3:30 p.m. Eastern time, according to FactSet data.

The losses come after the company's shares surged 112.1% during a 11-day win streak to close Wednesday at $31.07, their highest price since March 29, 2022, before falling 9.5% on Thursday. The stock previously fell 17.4% on Jan. 18.

Marathon shares are still up nearly 600% so far this year, putting the stock on pace for its best year since 2020, per FactSet data. Its recent rally is in part driven by optimism that a spot-bitcoin (BTCUSD) exchange-traded fund may soon be approved in the U.S.

Other crypto miners have also rallied this year, with shares of Riot Platforms $(RIOT)$ up over 360% this year to date and shares of Ebang International $(EBON)$ up more than 430% during the same period.

Bitcoin edged lower on Friday and is down 1.1% over the past 24 hours to slightly above $42,000, according to CoinDesk data. The cryptocurrency is up 156.9% so far this year, while still down almost 40% from its peak in 2021.

-Frances Yue

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

December 29, 2023 15:35 ET (20:35 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.