MARA once pledged to keep every bitcoin it mined. It just sold 13,597 of them as BTC sank below $74,000
The miner sold 40% of its stack for $1.1 billion to repay loans and fund AI, and says more sales are coming, as bitcoin misses the stock rebound.
MARA Holdings, one of the largest public bitcoin miners, sold 13,597 bitcoin for about $1.1 billion in the six weeks after September 30, and says more sales are coming. That is about 40% of the 34,012 coins it held at the end of the quarter, according to its third-quarter shareholder letter. In 2024 the company pledged to keep all the bitcoin it mined, CoinDesk noted. Now it is treating its stack as a cash source for AI data centers, debt and buybacks.
The news landed as bitcoin itself slid. The coin fell below $74,000 on Tuesday after a hot inflation report, trading at $73,363 in the afternoon, The Block reported. That was five years to the day after bitcoin's 2021 peak near $69,000. Stocks, by contrast, just had their best day since April.
What MARA sold and why#
The coins went for an average of about $81,039 each. MARA used $750 million of the proceeds to fully repay loans backed by its bitcoin, which freed up 17,477 coins it had pledged as collateral, the letter says. It had taken the loans in August, when bitcoin traded near $64,000, to help pay for Long Ridge, a natural gas power business. MARA says borrowing low and selling higher produced an "estimated net benefit of $170.0 million."
The company is clear that it is not done. "We intend to continue using bitcoin to build cash for purposes such as AI infrastructure opportunities, to satisfy the puts on our convertible notes that become exercisable next year, and potential share repurchases," MARA wrote, as quoted by Bitcoin Magazine. Its board approved a buyback of up to $500 million.
The core business is shrinking. Third-quarter revenue fell 35% to $164.2 million from $252.4 million a year earlier. MARA mined 2,247 bitcoin in the quarter and bought none. It sold six times as much bitcoin in six weeks as it mined in the whole quarter, per CoinDesk. The company still booked a big profit on paper, mostly from gains in the value of the bitcoin it held, The Block reported.
Source: MARA 2025 annual report, MARA Q1 2026 filing, MARA Q3 2026 letter, Bitcoin Magazine
Show the numbers
| Date | BTC held |
|---|---|
| Dec 31, 2024 | 44,893 |
| Dec 31, 2025 | 53,822 |
| Mar 31, 2026 | 35,303 |
| Sep 30, 2026 | 34,012 |
| Mid-Nov 2026 (est.) | 20,400 |
A shift that started last year#
MARA's holdings peaked at 53,822 coins at the end of 2025, its annual report shows. It began allowing sales of newly mined bitcoin in 2025, then widened the policy this year to cover coins on its balance sheet. It sold 26,984 bitcoin for $1.9 billion in the first nine months of 2026. With the latest sale, its total for the year tops 40,000 coins.
Reddit users saw this coming. When MARA first changed its policy in March, a r/CryptoCurrency thread split between people calling it a dump and others calling it "liquidity management." At the time, MARA held 53,822 coins. Today it likely holds well under half of that.
Bitcoin is lagging everything else#
The sale matters because of the timing. Bitcoin has failed to join the stock rebound. On Monday, as the S&P 500 posted its best day since April, bitcoin slipped below $75,000.
Gold bull and longtime bitcoin critic Peter Schiff jumped on the gap. He pointed out that stocks, gold and silver were all up while bitcoin fell below "key support at $75K," and told his followers to sell. The post drew more than 580 replies.
Even bitcoin bulls are worn out. The crypto trader Killa (@KillaXBT) noted that the S&P 500 and Nasdaq bounced 3% and 6.6% while bitcoin "does absolutely nothing," then fell when stocks dipped after hours. "Its time to log off for a while," he wrote. It is a common complaint: bitcoin has been falling with stocks but not rising with them.
Tuesday's inflation data made it worse. Higher yields and a stronger dollar "could add to recent selling pressure," said Bitget analyst Lewis Huang, who called the 200-day moving average near $73,200 a key support level. Matt Mena of 21Shares said a sustained break below $73,000 could send bitcoin toward $69,000, near its 2021 high, according to The Block. Ether fell 3.7% to $2,042. About $356 million in leveraged crypto bets were forcibly closed over the 24 hours to Tuesday morning, most of them bets on higher prices, Bitcoin.com News reported, citing Coinglass.
Watcher.Guru marked the anniversary of the 2021 peak, in a post seen more than 400,000 times. At Tuesday's price, bitcoin sits only about 6% above that five-year-old high.
What it means#
For holders, the MARA sale is a signal more than a supply shock. About $1.1 billion is small next to a market worth roughly $1.48 trillion, per The Crypto Times, citing CoinMarketCap. But miners were long sold as natural long-term holders. When one of the biggest says its coins are better spent on AI data centers and stock buybacks, it undercuts the "never sell" story that drove the corporate treasury boom.
Watch three things next: whether bitcoin holds $73,000, whether other miners follow MARA into AI and sell coins to pay for it, and the Fed's December decision. Our economy story explains why a rate hike now looks likely, and our markets story covers the stock swings bitcoin missed.
Cite this article
Patrick Karsh. “MARA once pledged to keep every bitcoin it mined. It just sold 13,597 of them as BTC sank below $74,000.” 567 Business. Published 2026-11-10. https://567business.com/news/mara-sells-bitcoin-btc-below-74000
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