MARA Holdings (MARA), the largest bitcoin (BTC) miner by market capitalization, 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 released Friday, MARA did not identify the borrowers nor reveal other details regarding the program, which ties up about 16% of its bitcoin. Robert Samuels, the company’s vice president of investor relations, said in a post on X that it is earning a yield of less than 10%.
“There has been significant interest in MARA’s bitcoin lending program,” Samuels posted. “It focuses on short-term arrangements with well-established third parties. It generates a modest single-digit yield. It has been active throughout 2024. The long-term objective is to generate sufficient yield to offset operating expenses”.
The company produced 890 bitcoin last month, 2% fewer than in November, the production report shows. Still, it’s the second-biggest number of BTC since April’s reward halving.
“We mined 249 blocks, the second most blocks in a month on record,” Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel said in the report. “MARAPool achieved an impressive annual hash rate growth of 168% in 2024, exceeding bitcoin’s network growth rate of 49%”.
For all of 2024, MARA acquired 22,065 BTC at an average price of $87,205 and mined an additional 9,457 BTC taking its total held to 44,893 BTC. Bitcoin is currently trading just below $100,000. The company is the second-biggest publicly traded owner of bitcoin, trailing only MicroStrategy (MSTR).
MARA shares rose 2.60% in pre-market trading and have 14% since the start of the year.