MARA Holdings (MARA), the largest bitcoin (BTC) miner by market cap, said it is lending 7,377 BTC to third parties to generate a return on its holdings and cover some operating costs.
In a production report published on Friday, MARA did not identify the borrowers or reveal other details about the program, which ties up about 16% of its bitcoins. Robert Samuels, the company’s vice president of investor relations, said in a post on X that it is returning less than 10%.
“There has been significant interest in MARA’s bitcoin lending program,” Samuels posted. “It focuses on short-term deals with well-established third parties. It generates a modest single-digit return. It has been active throughout 2024. The long-term goal is to generate a return sufficient to offset operating expenses.”
The company produced 890 bitcoins last month, down 2% from November, the production report shows. Still, it is the second-largest amount of BTC since the reward halving in April.
“We examined 249 blocks, the second most on record in a month,” President and CEO Fred Thiel said in the report. “MARAPool achieved an impressive annual hash rate growth of 168% in 2024, surpassing the bitcoin network growth rate of 49%.”
Throughout 2024, MARA acquired 22,065 BTC at an average price of $87,205 and mined an additional 9,457 BTC, bringing its total to 44,893 BTC. Currently, Bitcoin is trading just below $100,000. The company is the second-largest publicly traded bitcoin holder, behind only MicroStrategy (MSTR).
MARA shares rose 2.60% in pre-market trading and are up 14% since the beginning of the year.
