Marathon Digital buys 4,144 Bitcoin and increases to more than 25,000 BTC

Mining company Marathon Digital Holdings announced yesterday evening that it had bought 4,144 Bitcoin worth around 250 million US dollars. The US public limited company raised the funds for the additional purchase by issuing convertible bonds for USD 300 million. MARA now holds more than 25,000 BTC, which have a current equivalent value of almost 1.5 billion US dollars.

In the accompanying press release, the company emphasized that the recent purchase reflects its confidence in Bitcoin as a currency reserve and that this strategy is in line with MARA's long-term goals.

The Bitcoin mining company also stated that it continues to focus on operations, but that buying Bitcoin directly with money raised through the capital markets is currently more advantageous than investing heavily in operations.

given the current mining hash price, the internal rate of return (IRR) indicates that purchasing bitcoin using funds from debt or equity issuances is more beneficial to shareholders until conditions improve.

While we continue to invest in our mining operations and grow our business, we will also capitalize on opportunities to purchase bitcoin, particularly during market downturns. Our strategy is to strike a balance between mining bitcoin and buying bitcoin, factoring in market conditions. During periods of significant price appreciation, we may focus solely on mining. However, with bitcoin trending sideways and costs increasing, which has been the case recently, we expect to opportunistically “buy the dips.”
_{From the press release}

MARA invested 150 million US dollars in Bitcoin in 2021, which the company says it still holds today. Following the $100 million Bitcoin purchase announced by Maratohn Digital at the end of July, the public company held 20,818 Bitcoin on its balance sheet.

The fact that the mining company reported a total balance of more than 25,000 BTC after the recent acquisition of 4,144 units suggests that Bitcoin "mined" through the operating business was also transferred to the balance sheet.

The approach of buying additional Bitcoin with debt capital helped the company to "solidify MARA as the second largest publicly traded company with bitcoin on its balance sheet." Although the "first mover" MicroStrategy has around nine times the amount of BTC, the mining company has recently been able to significantly extend its lead over Coinbase, Tesla and Block, among others, which all hold slightly less than 10,000 Bitcoin, according to BitcoinTreasuries.

With the current reserve of more than 25,000 Bitcoin, it should only be a matter of time before MARA manages to reach the interim target set by MicroStrategy founder Michael Saylor. Saylor asked the CEO of MARA on 𝕏 in response to the purchase at the end of July whether a company with this name should not hold at least 26.2 thousand Bitcoin. The Bitcoin billionaire humorously alluded to the distance of a marathon - measured in miles. MARA CEO Fred Thiel replied that it was something worth thinking about. Thiel apparently came to the realization relatively quickly that further expansion of the Bitcoin position made sense.