A week before staking withdrawals are made possible in the Ethereum Shanghai hard fork, Ether has crossed the $1,900 threshold for the first time in more than seven months. Expectations that the Fed might ease up on its quantitative tightening efforts or an increase in demand for Ether given that staking is expected to be more flexible could both be contributing factors to the recent price increase. Even though some analysts and traders claim that the release of staked Ether will increase sell pressure, it is currently unknown what will happen after the Shanghai and Capella updates. News Sorce

2,195 BTC, or about $62 million, were mined by Marathon Digital during the first quarter of 2023, setting a new quarterly record. This is an increase of 41% from Q4 2022 and a 74% increase from last year. Additionally, Marathon set a monthly record in March with 825 Bitcoins mined, a 21% increase over February. Marathon made “notable progress,” according to CEO Fred Thiel, in carrying out its two main initiatives for 2023: boosting the energy of its previously purchased mining rigs to reach 23 exahashes by the end of the second quarter and performance optimization. The management of Marathon attributed the rise in productivity to the activation of 25,900 Bitcoin miners. At the end of the quarter, Marathon Digital had $124.9 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents, or 11,466 BTC, or more than $450 million. The company anticipates that the purchase of new Antminer S19 XPs, which are 30% more effective than the S19 Pro, will result in continued operational efficiencies. Compass Mining, however, has criticized the plan. News Sorce