Major Asset manager: Vanguard Group, investing heavily in Bitcoin mining

Vanguard Group, a big asset manager, has increased its investment in Bitcoin mining companies to over half a billion dollars, according to Monday's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Vanguard manages $7.2 trillion in assets and has bought more shares from Riot Platforms and Marathon Digital.

Documents show that Vanguard has increased its Marathon Digital holdings by 60%, from 10.9 million shares to 17.5 million. This means Vanguard's investment in Marathon Digital is worth around $280.5 million.

Vanguard also raised its stake in Riot Blockchain, a Bitcoin miner based in Colorado, by nearly 18%, from 15.2 million shares to 17.9 million. This is worth over $281 million, making Vanguard's total investment in Bitcoin miners $560 million.

Just two years ago, Vanguard said that long-term investment in cryptocurrencies was "weak." Now, it's the biggest shareholder of Marathon Digital.

Institutions are showing more interest in cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said last week that Bitcoin was an "international asset." BlackRock is the world's biggest asset manager and applied to the SEC for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. They also own 8.6 million shares in Marathon Digital.

Many other fund managers have also applied for a Bitcoin ETF, causing the cryptocurrency's price to hit a yearly high. A new cryptocurrency exchange, EDX Markets, backed by Wall Street giants like Charles Schwab and Fidelity Digital Assets, also opened last month. 

Bitcoin mining involves using powerful computers to verify blockchain transactions. Today, miners are often big operations that use server farms and a lot of energy, and they receive new Bitcoins for their work.