Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA), renowned for its Bitcoin (BTC) mining prowess, has embarked on a strategic venture to broaden its revenue streams by engaging in the mining of Kaspa (KAS), a layer-1 protocol. This move marks Marathon’s transition into a multi-coin crypto miner.

Kaspa leverages a proof-of-work (PoW) consensus algorithm, notably the GHOSTDAG protocol, which diverges from Bitcoin by enabling the concurrent creation of multiple blocks. This mechanism accelerates transaction speeds and augments block rewards for miners, as elucidated in Marathon’s official release.

Adam Swick, Marathon’s Chief Growth Officer, articulated the strategic significance of this diversification: “By integrating Kaspa mining, we cultivate a revenue stream that complements our Bitcoin operations and aligns with our core expertise in digital asset computation.”

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The Kaspa token has experienced a remarkable surge of nearly 50% this year, outpacing Bitcoin’s 44% increase and the broader CoinDesk 20 index’s 16% rise over the same period.

Marathon initiated its Kaspa mining operations in September of the previous year, deploying the first mining unit. The company has since acquired mining hardware with a cumulative capacity of 60 petahashes, capable of achieving profit margins up to 95%, according to their statement. Currently, 30 petahashes worth of mining equipment are operational at Marathon’s Texas facilities, with the remaining capacity expected to be online by the third quarter. To date, Marathon has mined 93 million KAS, valued at approximately $15 million.

In the wake of the prolonged crypto winter and the recent Bitcoin halving, Bitcoin miners have been compelled to seek alternative revenue sources. Many have repurposed their existing infrastructure to support artificial intelligence (AI) and other computational demands. Concurrently, entities like Marathon have pursued additional layers of Bitcoin monetization to enhance revenue streams.