BIT Mining Surges 250% on Solana Pivot

Cryptocurrency miner BIT Mining (BTCM) is shifting its focus to Solana with plans to raise up to $300 million to acquire SOL tokens. BIT Mining said it wants to "capture emerging opportunities across the broader blockchain" industry and attract investors seeking exposure to Solana in an announcement on Thursday . The company's New York Stock Exchange-listed shares soared as high as $11.20 in pre-market trading, over 350% compared to Wendesday's closing price of $2.46, following the announcement. At press time, BTCM was trading nearly 250% higher at $8.38. Akron-Ohio-based BIT Mining will convert its existing crypto holdings into SOL and plans to raise $200 million-$300 million to accumulate more. The company holds 19 BTC ($2.1 million), according to Bitcoin Treasuries . Bitcoin miners have been seeking means of diversifying their revenue streams since the last quadrennial halving event in April 2024, which saw the reward for adding new blocks to the Bitcoin network reduced by 50%. BIT Mining said in December that its profits from mining litecoin (LTC) and dogecoin (DOGE) were triple that which it had acquired from BTC. Fellow mining firm Bit Digital has shifted its entire treasury to ETH as part of a plan to focus solely on ether staking.