Marathon Digital, the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) miner by market cap, saw an 18% increase in its share price after joining the S&P SmallCap 600 index fund.
On May 3, S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Marathon would replace the heating and ventilation manufacturing firm Aaon in the index on May 8.
The S&P SmallCap 600 tracks 600 U.S. companies with market capitalisations ranging from $1 billion to $6.7 billion posting profit in both the most recent quarter and the past four quarters.
By May 6, Marathon Digital (MARA) shares had surged nearly 18% to $20.67, as reported by Google Finance.
Marathon’s stock has seen a 25.2% increase since the Bitcoin halving on April 20, which reduced miner block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC (valued at approximately $198,000 at current prices).
Despite a year-to-date decline of 9.86%, with a 2024 high of $31.03 on Feb. 28, Marathon remains a notable component of the S&P SmallCap 600 due to its $5.6 million market capitalisation using a float-adjusted market cap weighting methodology.
Marathon’s inclusion in the index comes as the firm is about to release its first-quarter earnings on May 9, which is expected to show a 280% year-on-year revenue increase to $193.9 million and $0.02 earnings per share — a 166.7% year-on-year jump.
On May 6, shares of Marathon’s Bitcoin mining competitors also performed well, with CleanSpark (CLSK) and TeraWulf (WULF) seeing respective increases of nearly 8% and 10.7%.
The rise in Bitcoin mining stocks comes amid a decline in miner revenue following the halving event, although initial concerns have been offset by transaction fees remaining relatively steady, ranging from 0.2 BTC to 1 BTC at block 842,350, according to mempool.space data.