In the Bitcoin mining industry, radical changes have come to the fore in the custody strategies of major players. MARA Holdings and Core Scientific, two of the important companies in the sector, announced new policies to sell the assets in their reserves, moving away from the long-term understanding of holding bitcoin that has been maintained until today.
Change in MARA Holdings’ Bitcoin Strategy
US-based MARA Holdings is known as a publicly traded company that operates large-scale bitcoin mining operations based on advanced technology. In its last annual report, the company announced that it has expanded the scope of its financial strategy for 2026 and introduced the flexibility to sell the bitcoins it holds on its balance sheet. With this change, it has gone beyond the 2025 policy that only newly produced bitcoins are allowed to be sold.
As of the end of 2025, MARA had 53,822 bitcoins in its safe. According to the company’s data, while the value of this asset fluctuated throughout the year, the total recorded fair value loss was 422.2 million dollars. MARA used approximately 28 percent of its holdings in credit, trade or collateral transactions. While some of this was used as collateral for a certain credit limit, a significant amount was lent to companies. The company earned $32.1 million in interest income from these activities.
Mining Activity and Structural Transformation Plans
MARA, which reached a processing power of 66.4 exahash/second with a total of 490 thousand mining devices at the end of the year, mined a total of 8,799 bitcoins in 2025. The amount produced fell behind the 2024 data due to the reward halving in 2024 seen throughout the industry and the increase in network difficulty. While the company’s total energy capacity reached 1.9 gigawatts, the annual figure paid for energy was 179 million dollars.
Drawing attention to the difficult economic conditions in the sector, MARA makes its bitcoin reserves tradable in the market with the new policy that aims to make capital management flexible against fluctuations in market prices. The company also continues its efforts to develop energy-intensive data centers for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing activities. While such projects require long-term and large-scale investments, the ability to convert balance sheet assets into cash expands the company’s financing opportunities.
Core Scientific Preparing Its Bitcoins for Sale
Another leading industry player, Core Scientific, also announced plans to divest almost all of its bitcoin holdings next year. The company aims to use its revenue from mining in data center transformation for artificial intelligence and high-density workloads.
Core Scientific, which generated $175 million in revenue by selling approximately 1,900 bitcoins in January, held 2,537 bitcoins at the end of the year. It was stated that during the restructuring process, it continued its mining activities mainly to maintain its commitments regarding energy supply.
The company’s total cash and equivalent assets at the end of the year were recorded at 530 million dollars. Additionally, the potential for billion-dollar financing in connection with large-scale data center projects has also been raised. Selling BTC assets increases the level of cash in the vault while reducing the need for borrowing and issuance of additional shares.
In turn, companies reduce the potential to directly benefit from bitcoin’s upward movements. As a result, treasury management, energy supply and new technology investments stand out as interconnected decision points throughout the sector.
