Bitcoin miner MARA (MARA), recently rebranded from Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA), announced on Thursday that it has purchased an additional $100 million worth of bitcoin.
The company’s shares fell more than 2% in premarket trading Thursday following the announcement.
According to a statement shared with The Block, this acquisition brings MARA’s total bitcoin holdings to over 20,000 BTC, representing nearly 0.1% of bitcoin’s total supply of 21 million.
The company did not disclose the specific timing or average price of the purchases. However, given the dollar amount and MARA’s previous holdings of 18,536 BTC at the end of June, as reported by Bitcoin Treasuries, it is estimated that the recent acquisitions likely totaled around 1,500 BTC, bought in the $54,000 to $68,000 range this month, The Block said.
Moreover, MARA said it will adopt a full HODL approach to its bitcoin treasury policy, retaining all bitcoin mined in its operations and periodically making strategic open market purchases. This strategy will come into effect immediately.
"Adopting a full HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of bitcoin," said Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO.
"We believe bitcoin is the world’s best treasury reserve asset and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding it. We encourage governments and corporations to all hold bitcoin as a reserve asset.”
MARA’s latest moves indicate that Bitcoin miner is adopting a strategy similar to that of MicroStrategy (MSTR), the world’s largest publicly-listed BTC holder.
Founded by Michael Saylor, a vocal advocate of Bitcoin, MicroStrategy holds the premier cryptocurrency as a primary treasury reserve asset. The company continuously buys Bitcoin, accumulating 226,331 coins as of June 24, 2024.