MARA Sells 40% of Its Bitcoin (BTC) Holdings to Repay Debt

13,597 Bitcoin Off the Balance Sheet

Roughly 40% of the Bitcoin (BTC) that MARA Holdings held at the end of September has left the company. The shareholder letter filed with the SEC on November 9 says MARA sold 13,597 BTC after the quarter closed, at an average price of $81,039, raising about $1.1 billion. That block equals close to 40% of the 34,012 BTC the miner reported on its books at September 30. About $750 million of the proceeds went to fully repaying MARA's Bitcoin-backed term loans, which freed the 17,477 BTC pledged as collateral against them. The loans were drawn in August, when Bitcoin traded near $64,000, and the company puts the gain from selling into a market above its borrowing price at roughly $170 million after interest and fees. Selling was already under way inside the quarter: MARA sold 3,891 BTC in Q3 at an average of $75,300. On-chain records also show the firm's whale-scale transfers to exchanges through October. For scale, the Bitcoin price now sits near $74,792, about 8% below the average MARA realized on the post-quarter block.

Revenue Down 35%, Paper Gains Up

The quarter's operating numbers explain why the company reached for its holdings. Revenue fell 35% year over year, from $252.4 million to $164.2 million, dragged by a 37% drop in the average price of the Bitcoin (BTC) MARA mined. Net income moved the other way, rising from $123.1 million a year earlier to $632.1 million, but most of that swing is accounting rather than cash: the 10-Q filed with regulators attributes it to an $885.3 million unrealized gain from marking digital assets to fair value, and the gain stays on paper until the coins are sold. Cash generation from crypto mining did not keep pace: production rose 5% to 2,247 BTC in Q3 and the proof-of-work hash rate climbed 18% to 71.2 EH/s, yet revenue still contracted. MARA shares closed November 9 at $6.64, up 4.57% on the day and roughly flat after hours, though they have lost 57.38% over the past 12 months. The revenue squeeze is not new either; mining revenue fell 34% in September, an earlier reading of the same pressure.

Bitcoin Near Its Strongest Support

Live market data puts Bitcoin (BTC) near $74,792 at the time of writing, down 0.3% over the past 24 hours and 0.1% higher since the letter landed before 05:00 UTC. COINOTAG's composite support and resistance scoring, the basis of our Bitcoin technical analysis view, rates the $74,169 level at 100/100, the strongest support on the board, against resistance at $78,034 scored 94/100. Momentum readings are soft, with the RSI near 36 and the trend signal pointing down. Perpetual funding sits at just 0.0036%, so the market has absorbed a $1.1 billion seller announcement without visible leverage stress. A daily close below $74,169 would be the line that changes that picture.

Convertible Puts and a $500 Million Buyback

The letter makes clear the October sale was not the last one. “We expect to continue to monetize bitcoin to enhance our financial flexibility,” it states. MARA's holdings had already shrunk from 52,850 BTC a year earlier to 34,012 BTC on September 30, a fall of about 36%. Its 2026 strategy lets the company sell balance-sheet coins, where the 2025 policy covered only newly mined output, loosening the strategic Bitcoin reserve posture it advertised before. The letter lists three destinations for future cash: convertible note puts that become exercisable next year and let holders demand early repayment; a board-approved buyback of up to $500 million with no obligation to buy any set amount; and AI infrastructure, where MARA is targeting two tenant leases before year-end, with timing that could slip into 2027. Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel rejected the idea of an exit: “It is important to remember that this is not a pivot away from Bitcoin.” The drawdown also is not unique, and a pattern of Bitcoin miner sell-offs is running across the sector. Riot Platforms cut its holdings 79% over three months, to 2,418 BTC by September 30, then paired its November 4 results with a signed data center lease worth about $28 billion, and its shares rose nearly 14% that day. Either way, roughly 40% of the stack MARA held at the end of September has been monetized, and the letter's own language points to more.