Cryptocurrency exchange FTX saw its valuation soar to $32 billion in a new funding round announced Jan. 31, underscoring a continued appetite for the sector.
This is just one of many financing rounds sending serious cash into the crypto sector. In 2021, funding for blockchain startups increased eightfold to $25.2 billion.
This trend isn’t expected to slow in 2022, creating a positive outlook for companies in the space such as Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA), Hut 8 Mining Corp. (NASDAQ:HUT), Hive Blockchain Technologies (NASDAQ:HIVE) and Voyager Digital (OTC:VYGVF) (TSX:VOYG).
Hut 8 Mining Corp. recently provided its mining production for January 2022, revealing that it mined 308 BTC. Hut 8 reported that 16% of the production was from the company’s graphics processing unit miners. These GPUs are efficient, with minimal power requirements. The company deposited 100% of the self-mined bitcoin.
Marathon Digital Holdings Inc.: On Feb. 4, Marathon reported an 816% year-over-year surge in Bitcoin production in January. Marathon stock popped nearly 10% on the report that it produced 462.1 self-mined Bitcoin in January 2022 vs. 50.4 in January 2021. January’s total is a sequential decline from December 2021’s 484.5 BTC.
Hive Blockchain Technologies announced the total Bitcoin equivalent mined by the company in 2021 was 4,032. In January, Hive produced 264 bitcoins at a mining capacity of 1.87 Exahash. The company also produced 2,170 ETH equivalent at a mining capacity of 4.56 Terahash.
Voyager Digital is one of the fastest-growing, publicly traded cryptocurrency platforms in the U.S. and is now a corporate investor of crypto lending and tax platform CoinLedger. Voyager recently partnered with CoinLedger to bring free tax tools for its users for the 2021 tax year.
Benzinga’s Take: Despite ongoing volatility in the crypto markets, companies in the space see continued growth, and activity on their platforms. This can be viewed as a signal of the nearing maturity of the crypto markets.
