Cryptocurrency stocks catch a bid as bitcoin, ether manage to stay afloat

Cryptocurrency-focused stocks like Marathon Digital (MARA) and Coinbase Global (COIN) are climbing in Monday afternoon trading as bitcoin (BTC-USD) and ethereum (ETH-USD), the two largest digital tokens by market cap, inch higher over the past 24 hours. In the midst of a mixed stock market session, bitcoin (BTC-USD +0.6%) is edging higher to $38.7K intraday and ether (ETH-USD +0.5%) is up to $2.82K. April numbers for a couple mining companies came out early Monday. Bitfarms' (BITF) average daily bitcoin (BTC-USD) production climbed 15% M/M, and BitNile (NILE) had mined 10% more BTC. For crypto-specific news, Marathon Digital (MARA) was said to be turning to the options market in an effort to raise money. Generally, most publicly traded firms raise capital by selling debt/equity or borrowing through a bank, so Marathon Digital's move is far from usual. Specifically, MARA is selling bitcoin (BTC-USD) call options and “we use call option straddles, where