In 2024, Bitcoin mining company MARA, formerly Marathon Digital, took a risk by loaning out 7,377 Bitcoin to increase revenue and pay escalating operational costs. At the end of the year, the company valued its overall Bitcoin reserves at $4.2 billion, and this transaction represents roughly 16% of those reserves.
According to Robert Samuels, MARA’s vice president of investor relations, the financing program concentrated on short-term arrangements with trustworthy third parties, resulting in low single-digit yields. We created the scheme to reduce the financial burden of mining, an energy-intensive task that became significantly more challenging with the April 2024 Bitcoin halving, which reduced block rewards to 3.125 BTC per block.
In addition to lending, MARA increased its Bitcoin reserves significantly. The corporation mined 9,457 BTC and purchased 22,065 BTC for an average of $87,205 per coin, bringing its total holdings to 44,893 BTC. Two senior convertible note issues totaling $1.9 billion funded these acquisitions. Both notes have zero-interest coupons, with maturity dates of 2030 and 2031.
MARA also reached a significant computational power milestone, becoming the first publicly traded mining business to exceed 50 exahashes per second (EH/s). By year-end, the energized hashrate had reached 53.2 EH/s, cementing the company’s position as an industry leader.
This strategic pivot demonstrates MARA’s agility in a volatile industry, as it balances creative financial strategies with technology developments to maintain growth and profitability in the competitive Bitcoin mining sector.
