Shares of Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) miners Marathon Digital Holdings Inc (NASDAQ:MARA), Riot Platforms Inc (NASDAQ:RIOT) and CleanSpark Inc (NASDAQ:CLSK) are trading higher Thursday as the price of Bitcoin continues to climb.

What To Know: Bitcoin is hovering near recent highs, trading higher by about 1.3% over the last 24 hours. At last check, the price of Bitcoin was $44,168&. Crypto markets appear to be bouncing back Thursday after facing selling pressure Wednesday as equity markets turned sharply lower in afternoon trading. 

Bitcoin is now up approximately 163% since the start of the year. Much of the rally in the crypto space has largely been driven by continued optimism surrounding a potential spot Bitcoin ETF. Most analysts continue to anticipate regulatory approval in the coming weeks. Expectations for rate cuts from the Federal Reserve in 2024 has also helped boost the broader crypto space.

Marathon, Riot and CleanSpark are all Bitcoin miners. Earlier this week, Marathon shares surged after the company entered into a definitive agreement to acquire two Bitcoin mining sites. The two sites are expected to add 390 megawatts of capacity to Marathon's Bitcoin mining portfolio, which currently has 584 megawatts of capacity.

See Also: Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin Trade Mixed As BlackRock, Nasdaq, SEC Meet Once Again

MARA, RIOT, CLSK Price Action: At publication time, Marathon Digital was up 6.33% at $23.54, Riot Platforms was up 4.26% at $17.14 and CleanSpark was up 6.48% at $11.17, according to Benzinga Pro.

Photo: Eivind Pedersen from Pixabay.