Bitcoin
Bitcoin Miner Marathon (MARA) Buys $100 Million Worth of BTC, Will Adopt ‘Full HODL’ Strategy
Marathon Digital (MARA), one of the largest bitcoin companies (BTC) miners have bought $100 million worth of BTC on the open market and said they will re-adopt their strategy of holding all mined bitcoin on their balance sheet.
The miner said in a declaration on Thursday that it now has more than 20,000 bitcoins, valued at nearly $1.3 billion based on current prices, on its balance sheet and plans to buy more on the open market.
“The recent decline in the price of Bitcoin, coupled with the strength of our balance sheet, has provided us with an opportunity to grow our assets. We look forward to continuing to leverage our technology expertise to support the Bitcoin and distributed digital asset ecosystems,” said Marathon CFO Salman Khan.
The decision to HODL or hold bitcoin comes nearly a year after the Marathon started to sell their mined digital assets to pay for the company’s operating expenses. Before the crypto winter, most miners adopted the strategy of keeping all mined bitcoin on their balance sheet, which paid off during the bull market rally. However, as the market imploded last year, most miners began selling their mined bitcoin to pay for operating expenses, and Marathon was one of the last to start monetizing its digital assets in early 2023.
“Adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of bitcoin,” said Fred Thiel, chairman and CEO of Marathon. “We believe bitcoin is the world’s best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations to hold bitcoin as a reserve asset.”
After a prolonged bear market, bitcoin began to recover its losses this year after companies like BlackRock gained approval to offer spot BTC exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the U.S. This move brought more investors into the market and helped the digital asset reach a new record price. Bitcoin has since come back from its peak of over $70,000 and is now trading around $64,000 — still up 51% this year.
“Given the current tailwinds for Bitcoin, including increasing institutional support and an improving macro environment, we are once again implementing this strategy and focusing on increasing the value we hold on our balance sheet,” said Marathon’s CFO.
Marathon held $268 million in cash on hand. balance sheet on June 30 and will report its second-quarter earnings on Aug. 1. The miner’s shares fell about 2.5% in premarket trading, while bitcoin has fallen nearly the same amount in the past 24 hours. The broader CoinDesk20 Index also fell 5.4% in the same period.