MARA sold $1.6 billion of bitcoin in first half

MARA Holdings sold about 23,093 bitcoin for $1.6 billion during the first half of 2026, marking a major reversal from the cryptocurrency miner’s earlier strategy of accumulating and retaining virtually all the bitcoin it produced.

The figure, disclosed in the company’s quarterly regulatory filing, represents cumulative sales during the six months ended June 30 rather than a single transaction carried out on Monday. Social-media posts describing the disposal as a new sale of 23,093 bitcoin therefore omit an important part of the chronology. MARA said it now sells bitcoin produced through mining operations on an ongoing basis and can dispose of additional holdings depending on market conditions and capital requirements.

The $1.6 billion realised from the sales implies an average price of roughly $69,300 per bitcoin. A substantial portion of the disposal occurred in March, when MARA sold 15,133 bitcoin for about $1.1 billion as part of a balance-sheet restructuring programme. That transaction helped finance the repurchase of approximately $1 billion of zero-coupon convertible senior notes.

The debt operation reduced the company’s borrowings considerably. Total debt declined from about $3.6 billion at the end of December 2025 to approximately $2.4 billion at June 30, after MARA repurchased around $367.5 million of notes due in March 2030 and $633.4 million of notes due in June 2031. The transactions also generated a $70.6 million accounting gain from extinguishing debt.

MARA nevertheless remains one of the biggest corporate holders of bitcoin. It held 35,577 bitcoin at the end of June, valued at about $2.1 billion at the quarter-end bitcoin price of $58,524. Of that total, 26,307 bitcoin were unrestricted while 9,270 were being used under the company’s digital-asset management programme.

The holdings have fallen sharply from 53,822 bitcoin at the end of 2025, when the company was still carrying a bitcoin treasury worth several billion dollars and had 15,315 coins loaned or pledged as collateral. The reduction reflects both asset sales and changing treasury management as miners contend with weaker cryptocurrency prices, capital-intensive expansion plans and escalating competition for computing infrastructure.

MARA mined 2,422 bitcoin during the second quarter, compared with 2,247 in the first three months of the year. Cash and cash equivalents stood at $421.3 million at June 30, giving the company combined cash and bitcoin resources of approximately $2.5 billion.

Bitcoin was trading near $65,000 on Monday, considerably above its June 30 level but far below the record territory reached during the previous cycle. At that price, MARA’s reported June holdings would be worth more than $2.3 billion, although the company’s actual treasury can change as it mines, sells, lends or pledges coins.

The shift is significant because MARA had adopted an aggressive accumulation strategy in 2024. It said at the time that it intended to retain all bitcoin mined and periodically purchase additional coins, treating bitcoin as a strategic treasury reserve asset. Its holdings subsequently climbed from 18,488 bitcoin in June 2024 to 49,951 a year later and 53,822 by the end of 2025.

That policy has now become more flexible. The company describes bitcoin simultaneously as a long-term store of value and a source of liquidity, allowing management to monetise holdings when debt reduction, operating requirements or investment opportunities make sales attractive. It also retains the ability to raise equity, with approximately $1.5 billion of capacity remaining under an at-the-market share programme at the end of June.

MARA’s strategy is developing as large bitcoin miners increasingly examine businesses beyond cryptocurrency production, particularly artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. Mining companies possess access to power, data-centre sites and electrical infrastructure that can potentially be repurposed for computing workloads, although such projects require substantial additional capital and long-term customers to deliver competitive returns.

The company has already been repositioning itself around energy infrastructure and computing while retaining bitcoin mining as a core operation. Its willingness to sell part of a treasury once promoted as a long-term reserve underscores that bitcoin holdings are becoming a financing tool as well as an investment asset.