MARA Sold 23,093 Bitcoin in First Half to Pay Down Debt and Fund AI Pivot

MARA Holdings spent years telling investors it would never sell its Bitcoin. In 2026 it sold a lot of it.

Between March 4 and March 25, the company sold 15,133 BTC at an average of roughly $72,700 per coin, raising about $1.1 billion. For the first half of the year, MARA disclosed total sales of 23,093 BTC, worth approximately $1.6 billion at an average of about $70,631.

Where the money went

Most of the March proceeds went to debt. MARA repurchased about $1 billion of convertible senior notes due in 2030 and 2031 through private transactions, at an approximate 9% discount to par. That discount captured an estimated $88 million in value and cut the company's convertible debt load by around 30%.

The treasury shrank accordingly. MARA held 53,822 BTC at the end of February. Right after the March sale, that fell to about 38,689 BTC. As of June 30, the company reported about 35,577 BTC.

The timing was not great. Bitcoin dipped below $69,000 around the time the March sale was announced, a few thousand dollars under the average price MARA got.

The AI pivot

The stated destination is digital energy and AI high-performance computing, the dense, power-hungry server setups used to train and run AI models. Mining sites already have land, cooling and grid connections, which is what those servers need.

MARA has partnered with Starwood Capital Group on the effort. The partnership targets nearly 1 gigawatt of near-term computing capacity, with potential to expand beyond 2.5 GW.

The company also acquired the Long Ridge Energy natural gas plant in Ohio. Owning generation means MARA controls its own electricity supply instead of competing for it.

MARA's new approach allows periodic Bitcoin sales as a capital management tool. That is a break from the old buy, mine, never sell playbook.

The stock is paying a price

Investors have not rewarded the shift lately. MARA shares fell about 39.7% over the 30 days through late October, from $11.23 to $6.77, according to market analysis from Tickeron. Over the trailing quarter the stock fell roughly 42% from about $11.75 in early August, even after a mid-September rally above $13.

Tickeron tied the drop to a pullback in Bitcoin, on-chain data showing Bitcoin transfers to exchanges, and a broad selloff across mining peers. It also pointed to shrinking revenue and mark-to-market losses on MARA's Bitcoin treasury. The same analysis calls execution and financing the central risks to the AI story.

A falling share price is not the same as investor losses. Holders who bought lower or sold higher had different outcomes, and the sources do not say who held what.

Political risk for the buildout

The AI infrastructure race is also running into voters. President Donald Trump has put federal weight behind large data center build-outs. But Fox News reported that Democrats captured the Texas governor's office for the first time in more than three decades in last Tuesday's midterms, along with a U.S. Senate seat for the first time since 1988.

Texas is on track to overtake Virginia as the largest U.S. data center market, with at least 248 projects planned and roughly a quarter of new U.S. data center power capacity through 2030. Investment bank Jefferies estimates 13.3 GW of announced developments could be at risk under a moratorium backed by Gov.-elect Gina Hinojosa.

Ohio, where MARA's new gas plant sits, saw voters weigh 21 data center ballot questions across 18 communities, more than any other state.

Brittany Kaiser, CEO of Alpha Compute, told Fox News Digital the results have investors rethinking where to put money. "It makes us and our investors pause and think if we should be investing somewhere else," she said. Kaiser argues that common-sense regulations, not sweeping bans or moratoriums, are the way to unlock growth while protecting local communities. She warned that planned investment could move elsewhere, including overseas.

Kaiser also said relocating projects already underway is far harder once developers have secured land and power agreements.

What to watch

MARA has swapped a Bitcoin stockpile for debt relief and a bet on AI capacity, and the market has not yet signed off. The open questions are concrete: whether the Starwood partnership delivers its near-term 1 GW target, whether MARA keeps selling Bitcoin to fund the buildout, and whether Hinojosa's moratorium becomes policy once she takes office.