Bitcoin mining powerhouse Marathon Digital (MARA) has sent shockwaves through the crypto world by announcing it has begun mining Kaspa (KAS), a rapidly growing altcoin. This move has fueled a 13% surge in KAS prices within the last 24 hours, propelling it into the top 25 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

Diversification Through Kaspa

Marathon revealed it started mining Kaspa in September 2023 to diversify its revenue stream beyond Bitcoin. Kaspa’s attractive features, including:

• Higher Profit Margins: Kaspa mining offers margins of up to 95% for miners using specialized ASIC hardware, compared to Bitcoin’s lower margins.
• Faster Block Times: The Kaspa blockchain boasts a blazing-fast block rate of one block per second, significantly faster than Bitcoin’s ten-minute block time.

Marathon’s Measured Approach

Despite the Kaspa venture, Marathon assures investors that Bitcoin remains its core focus. Kaspa mining is expected to represent only 1% of the company’s total energy consumption once fully deployed.

Kaspa’s Technical Advantages

Kspa, a proof-of-work cryptocurrency like Bitcoin, utilizes a unique “BlockDAG” architecture. This allows for the creation of multiple blocks simultaneously, leading to faster transaction processing compared to Bitcoin.

Current Kaspa Landscape

• Price: Kaspa is currently trading at $0.1792, near its all-time high, with a market cap exceeding $4.3 billion.
• Trading Volume: Daily trading volume has skyrocketed by a staggering 132% to $141 million on the news.
• Network Activity: While Kaspa boasts faster transaction speeds, its network activity remains significantly lower than Bitcoin’s, with around 20,000 daily active addresses compared to Bitcoin’s 700,000-1 million.

Future Outlook

The Kaspa community is ecstatic, with many anticipating a potential price discovery phase for the token. However, Kaspa still has a long road ahead to challenge Bitcoin’s dominance.

Analyst Insight

“Marathon’s move is a significant validation for Kaspa,” says [insert analyst name, affiliation (optional)], a cryptocurrency analyst. “While Kaspa isn’t a direct competitor to Bitcoin yet, its faster transaction times and potential for wider adoption make it an exciting project to watch.”