MARA Holdings spent the first half of 2026 doing something few Bitcoin miners have attempted at this scale: selling a huge chunk of its treasury while simultaneously borrowing against what remained. The Nasdaq-listed miner offloaded roughly 23,093 BTC for about $1.63 billion between January and June, according to its Aug. 6 Form 10-Q filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, cutting deep into a Bitcoin stockpile that once made it one of the largest corporate holders on the planet. The MARA Bitcoin sales weren’t a one-off liquidation, though — they were the first move in a broader liquidity and expansion strategy that has reshaped the company’s balance sheet in ways still playing out today.
Summary
Key takeaways
- MARA sold about 23,093 BTC for roughly $1.63 billion in H1 2026 at an average price of $70,631 per coin.
- Bitcoin holdings fell from 53,822 BTC at the end of 2025 to 35,577 BTC, worth about $2.08 billion, by June 30.
- MARA repurchased approximately $1 billion of its 0% convertible senior notes, cutting total debt from $3.6 billion to about $2.4 billion.
- On Aug. 4, MARA pledged 18,750 BTC as collateral to unlock $600 million in new borrowing from Coinbase and Two Prime.
- The company recorded a $1.87 billion net loss for the half, driven largely by a $1.4 billion drop in the fair value of its Bitcoin holdings.
- MARA is acquiring Long Ridge Energy & Power in Ohio for an enterprise value of about $1.5 billion to expand into energy and computing infrastructure.
MARA’s Bitcoin Sales and Treasury Holdings in 2026
The scale of MARA’s disposals this year marks a clear break from its earlier buy-and-hold posture. After permitting sales of newly mined coins in 2025, the company widened that policy in 2026 to allow sales from its existing balance-sheet reserves too — a shift that gave management far more flexibility to treat Bitcoin as a liquidity tool rather than a static asset locked away for the long haul.
That flexibility showed up immediately in the numbers. MARA Bitcoin sales generated $1.63 billion in proceeds during the first six months of the year, sold at an average price of $70,631 per coin. Most of that reduction happened early: in the first quarter alone, MARA sold 20,880 BTC for about $1.5 billion, while the second quarter saw a smaller 2,213 BTC sold at an average of $73,078.
By June 30, the company’s Bitcoin treasury stood at 35,577 BTC, valued at roughly $2.08 billion based on a quarter-end price near $58,524. That’s down sharply from 53,822 BTC at the close of 2025 and from 49,951 BTC a year earlier — though it was slightly higher than the 35,303 BTC on hand at the end of March. According to u.Today, a follow-up sale of 726 BTC in early August pushed the company out of the top three corporate Bitcoin holders, dropping it to fourth place behind Strategy, Twenty One Capital and Metaplanet.
MARA has been explicit that the sales were meant to fund operations, support growth investments and manage liquidity — not to abandon its exposure to Bitcoin altogether. The company’s own filing shows Bitcoin sales supplied its largest source of investing cash for the period: net cash from investing activities reached about $1.47 billion, compared with $337 million used in the same period a year earlier. Against those MARA ha destinato $94.3 million all’acquisto di proprietà e attrezzature, oltre a $61.1 million (al netto della liquidità acquisita) per le acquisizioni di Exaion e Meerkat dai proventi.
Changes in Bitcoin reserve management
Selling coins outright wasn’t the only lever MARA pulled. The company has increasingly put its remaining holdings to work through lending and collateralized borrowing rather than leaving the balance idle. At June 30, 4,742 BTC had been loaned to third parties and another 4,528 BTC pledged as collateral, leaving 26,307 unrestricted BTC worth about $1.5 billion. That lending generated $10.7 million in interest income during the first half — a modest but telling sign that MARA now treats its treasury as an active financial instrument rather than a passive store of value.
Use of Bitcoin Collateral and Debt Reduction
MARA’s most consequential financial move came after the quarter closed, when it pledged a large slice of its remaining reserves to raise new capital rather than sell more coins outright. On Aug. 4, the company pledged 18,750 BTC as initial collateral for lending arrangements with Coinbase Credit and Two Prime Lending, unlocking $600 million of incremental borrowing inside a broader $750 million facility structure. That single move locked up roughly 54% of MARA’s total Bitcoin treasury as collateral across its various credit arrangements, according to Crypto Briefing.
Coinbase supplied $450 million of that total — $300 million in new funding plus a refinancing of MARA’s prior $150 million credit line — at a floating rate pegged to the midpoint of the federal funds target range plus 3.875%, maturing Aug. 4, 2028, with an automatic one-year extension unless either party cancels. Two Prime separately provided a $300 million term loan at a fixed 7.65% annual rate, maturing Aug. 3, 2028. Both facilities require MARA to maintain collateral ratios, meaning additional Bitcoin could be required if pledged assets fall below contractual margin levels.
Reduction of convertible debt
Parallel to the borrowing push, MARA used part of its Bitcoin proceeds to shrink existing debt. The company repurchased approximately $1 billion of its 0% convertible senior notes through privately negotiated transactions, helping cut total debt from $3.6 billion at the end of 2025 to about $2.4 billion by June 30. That MARA debt financing maneuver came alongside $912.8 million in $350 million sono stati utilizzati insieme a rimborsi parziali dei convertible notes con scadenza marzo 2030 e giugno 2031 retire a previous credit line, with a separate $150 million facility partly offsetting the outflows. Financing activities overall used about $1.12 billion of cash during the half.
Why this matters: pairing debt reduction with fresh Bitcoin-backed borrowing signals that MARA isn’t simply trying to delever — it’s restructuring its balance sheet to free up capacity for the capital-intensive infrastructure bets it’s now placing. That kind of Bitcoin treasury management approach turns a volatile asset into working collateral rather than a fixed reserve, but it also means the company’s borrowing capacity now moves in step with Bitcoin’s price.
Financial Performance and Mining Expansion
MARA’s earnings tell a story of a company whose core mining economics held up reasonably well even as accounting losses ballooned. Revenue for the first half came in at $349.5 million, down from $452.4 million a year earlier, while the company swung to una perdita netta di $1.87 billion rispetto ai $274.8 million di utile netto in the same period of 2025. Operating activities consumed $471.3 million of cash, up from $378.9 million the year before, which MARA attributed mainly to lower revenue and higher operating costs.
Bitcoin’s price decline did most of the damage to the bottom line. The fair value of MARA’s durante i primi sei mesi le partecipazioni si sono ridotte di circa $1.4 billion al diminuire del prezzo di mercato dropped; for the second quarter alone, that mark-to-market hit totaled roughly $343 million, contributing to a quarterly net loss of $611.3 million, according to Crypto Briefing. That distinction matters for anyone reading the headline loss figure: a large share of it reflects accounting adjustments on unsold Bitcoin, not operational cash burn.
Increase in mining capacity and efficiency
On the operational side, MARA kept expanding its hashing power even as it trimmed its treasury. Energized hashrate climbed to 70.3 EH/s at June 30, up from 57.4 EH/s a year earlier — a 22% year-over-year increase — while miner efficiency improved to 17.3 joules per terahash from 18.3. Total energy capacity rose to 1.9 GW from 1.7 GW. During the second quarter, the company produced 2,422 BTC and sold about 91% of that output, underscoring how closely mining production and treasury sales are now linked.
Infrastructure Acquisitions Supporting Growth Strategy
The clearest destination for MARA’s newly raised capital is a bet on power generation itself. The company agreed on April 29 to acquire 100% of Long Ridge Energy & Power in Ohio, a deal carrying an enterprise value of about $1.5 billion, including roughly $900 million of assumed debt. The Long Ridge acquisition gives MARA a 485 MW combined-cycle gas power plant in Hannibal, Ohio — expected to expand to 505 MW in the first quarter of 2027 — plus more than 1,600 contiguous acres with water, fiber and rail access, sitting directly next to MARA’s existing Hannibal data center operations. MARA è stato inoltre ottenuto un impegno da Barclays per una linea di credito senior garantita a 364 giorni fino a $785 million to help backstop the acquisition debt, with a closing deadline of Nov. 30, 2026 that can be extended.
Texas site acquisition for computing and mining expansion
MARA is pursuing a second large powered site in Matagorda County, Texas, where it agreed in July to acquire more than 1,200 acres. The site is expected to offer an initial 1 GW of grid capacity by October 2027, scaling up to 2 GW by April 2028. Working with Starwood Digital Ventures, MARA plans to develop the property for high-performance computing, flexible compute services and Bitcoin mining. According to MARA’s SEC filing, the arrangement is structured as site-specific joint ventures formed once Starwood secures qualifying tenants, with MARA contributing land and Starwood supplying capital against those assets before MARA has to commit additional cash.
Taken together, the Long Ridge and Texas projects show where the proceeds from MARA’s Bitcoin sales and new borrowing are actually headed: not toward shoring up a shrinking mining business, but toward building out power and computing infrastructure that can serve both Bitcoin mining and AI-driven high-performance computing demand. As of June 30, MARA held $421.3 million in cash and cash equivalents plus roughly $2.1 billion in Bitcoin, putting its combined liquid position near $2.5 billion, alongside about $1.5 billion di capacità inutilizzata nel programma di equity at-the-market — durante il primo periodo non sono state vendute azioni attraverso questo strumento half of the year.
FAQ
Why did MARA sell Bitcoin during the first half of 2026?
MARA sold Bitcoin to fund operations, support growth investments, and manage liquidity, as part of its revised treasury management strategy that now allows sales from existing balance-sheet holdings, not just newly mined coins.
How did MARA use its Bitcoin holdings as collateral?
MARA pledged 18,750 BTC as collateral to secure $600 million in incremental borrowing from Coinbase and Two Prime, part of a broader $750 million facility structure used to fund expansion projects, including its Ohio power plant acquisition.
What impact did Bitcoin price movements have on MARA’s financials?
Bitcoin price declines reduced the fair value of MARA’s holdings by about $1.4 billion during the first half, contributing directly to the company’s $1.87 billion net loss for the period.
What infrastructure investments is MARA undertaking?
MARA is acquiring Long Ridge Energy & Power in Ohio for an enterprise value of about $1.5 billion and a large site in Matagorda County, Texas, both aimed at expanding energy and computing infrastructure for Bitcoin mining and high-performance computing.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
