MARA Holdings sells $1.1B in Bitcoin, buys debt at 9% off

MARA Holdings sold 15,000 BTC for $1.1 billion and used the proceeds to repurchase about $1 billion of its convertible notes at an average 9% discount. The transaction, completed on March 26, is intended to strengthen the Miami-based miner’s balance sheet and lower the chance that noteholders convert to equity.

The sale accounted for about 28% of the company’s Bitcoin reserves and left MARA with roughly 38,700 Bitcoin. With the token near $69,000 on March 26, those holdings were valued around $2.6 billion.

MARA reached agreements with certain noteholders to buy back the debt below par, capturing approximately $88 million in value before transaction costs and reducing outstanding convertible debt by about 30%.

Chair and CEO Fred Thiel characterized the action as strategic capital allocation to reduce exposure to debt and interest expenses while limiting potential equity conversion by noteholders. “This transaction enhances financial flexibility and increases strategic optionality,” Thiel stated, noting that the company is pursuing opportunities in artificial intelligence.

Earlier this month, MARA outlined a plan to reposition as a vertically integrated digital infrastructure company and indicated that further Bitcoin sales could occur. The firm reported $413 million of Bitcoin sales last year.

Shares rose more than 9% to around $9 on March 26, though the stock is down about 44% over the past six months.

Convertible notes allow holders to exchange debt for shares if the stock price exceeds a preset level. Repurchasing notes below face value can lower interest expense and reduce the likelihood of new share issuance if conversion thresholds are met.

Mining margins have narrowed as “hash price” (daily revenue per unit of computing power) has fallen. A report this week from CoinShares projected that miners could generate as much as 70% of revenues from AI services by year-end, citing weaker mining economics and steadier returns from compute infrastructure. “This shift is largely economic,” the report noted. On March 26, hash price was near $33 per petahash per second per day, down from about $64 in July.

Other miners have been freeing up capital and redirecting investment to AI data centers. Last month, Cango sold about 4,400 Bitcoin for $305 million to fund expansion plans. Bitfarms rebranded as Keel to reflect a renewed AI strategy, and Cipher Mining adopted the name Cipher Digital with a similar emphasis.

MARA indicated the Bitcoin sale and note repurchases were executed under agreements with select holders of its convertible notes at an average discount of about 9% to par while the company evaluates opportunities to deploy high-performance infrastructure.