Kaspa (CRYPTO: KAS) shot up to become the market's biggest gainer Wednesday after Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) mining giant Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ:MARA) revealed mining the proof-of-work (PoW) cryptocurrency to diversify its revenue.

What Happened: Kaspa soared 11% in the last 24 hours, swiftly approaching its all-time highs set in February. The coin's market cap breached $4 billion during the ascent.

Kaspa recorded a 92% spike in 24-hour trading volumes to $125 million, signaling strong buying pressure.

The dramatic surge follows Marathon Digital's disclosure that it was mining the coin to diversify away from Bitcoin operations – its primary revenue stream.

According to the company, it began studying the chances of mining Kaspa in May of last year and deployed its first Kaspa ASICs in September 2023.

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Marathon further revealed that it has mined 93 million KAS tokens as of June 25, worth $16.74 million at prevailing prices.

Why It Matters: Marathon's announcement comes amid challenging conditions for Bitcoin miners following the April halving event, which reduced block payouts by half.

According to research analyst Julio Moreno, the firm has endured lower Bitcoin production since last December, and liquidated nearly 1,000 Bitcoins from its holdings early June to generate cash.

Price Action: At the time of writing, KAS was exchanging hands at $0.1819, according to data from Benzinga Pro. Shares of Marathon Digital closed 0.62% higher at $19.37 at the end of Wednesday's trading session.

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