It's a good time to be a cryptocurrency investor, and by extension it's good to be an investor in cryptocurrency mining businesses.
The latest proof of that was Marathon Digital Holdings' (MARA 2.21%) nearly 15% pop in stock price Friday, a move sparked by an analyst price target increase but founded on continuing bullishness for anything crypto-related. By comparison, the S&P 500 index could only eke out a 0.6% gain that day.
Marathon gets a price target hike from a bear
The raiser was Reginald Smith of banking giant JPMorgan Chase. Before market open, Smith made an upward adjustment to his fair-value estimation of Marathon's stock. He now feels it's worth $8 per share, up from his preceding level of $7.
This move doesn't mean Smith is a bull on the shares. He maintained his underweight (sell, in other words) recommendation on Marathon.
Yet many investors refuse to hear a discouraging word about crypto assets these days. Marathon is riding the wave of popularity soaking Bitcoin, the currency it mines. Bitcoin continues to tease all-time highs; Friday morning it hit the $39,000 level for the first time in its relatively long history before pulling back only slightly in price.
Investors are still keen on crypto
With worries about the economy continuing to fade -- witness the increasing mentions of a soft landing among economists and pundits -- investors are piling back into digital coins, tokens, and miners. Such assets are perceived to be relatively risky, and in prosperous times market players tend to take on more risk. Also, the apparently looming approvals for spot crypto exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are encouraging bullish investors.
