Why Bitcoin-Related And Ethereum-Related Stocks Are On The Move Today

Cryptocurrency-related stocks including Marathon Digital Holdings Inc MARA and Riot Blockchain Inc RIOT are trading higher Wednesday amid an increase in the price of Bitcoin BTC/USD and Ethereum ETH/USD and positive analyst coverage from B. Riley Securities. 

B. Riley Securities analyst Lucas Pipes maintained Marathon Digital with a Buy rating and raised the price target from $54 to $87. Pipes maintained Riot Blockchain with a Buy rating and raised the price target from $51 to $82.

The analyst's model now assumes a $45,000 Bitcoin price versus the prior assumption of a $35,000 Bitcoin price. The model was also adjusted to reflect higher miner costs. Despite higher costs, unit economics for digital mining remains "highly attractive," according to the analyst.

“While these adjustments represent a large increase from our prior estimates, we believe our model is still conservative," Pipes said.

Marathon Digital is focused on mining digital assets. It owns crypto-currency mining machines and a data center to mine the digital assets.

Riot Blockchain is focused on building, supporting and operating blockchain technologies. 

BTC, ETH Price Action: Bitcoin was up 2.71% over a 24-hour period and Ethereum was up 3.55% over a 24-hour period at publication time. 

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