MARA Sold 23,093 BTC Worth $1.63B in First Half of 2026

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MARA Holdings sold roughly 23,093 bitcoin for about $1.63 billion in the first half of 2026, according to the 10-Q the company filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on August 6. It is the first filing-backed figure for a liquidation pace that had, until now, only been visible in pieces.

The number lands three days after reported that MARA had moved 7,500 bitcoin, worth about $480 million, to Two Prime, a trading and lending firm that manages roughly $1.75 billion in institutional strategies and that MARA partly owns, a transfer that had not been confirmed as a sale. The 10-Q’s reporting period ends June 30, before that transfer took place, so it doesn’t cover it directly. The filing does show, in the company’s own numbers, how much bitcoin MARA had already sold before the Two Prime transfer happened.

Where MARA’s Treasury Stands Now

MARA held 26,307 bitcoin directly at the end of June, plus a 9,270-bitcoin receivable pledged out as collateral, for a combined 35,577 bitcoin. That is down from the 53,822 bitcoin the company held in March, an all-time high. A live tracker on Bitcoin Treasuries showed MARA’s position at 35,577 BTC as of August 7.

How MARA’s Selling Split Across Two Quarters

The 23,093 bitcoin breaks down unevenly. MARA sold 20,880 bitcoin for about $1.5 billion in the first quarter, including 15,133 bitcoin sold between March 4 and March 25 specifically to fund a $1.0 billion buyback of its convertible notes. CEO Fred Thiel said at the time the trade would “meaningfully de-lever the balance sheet.”

In the second quarter, the pace dropped sharply. MARA sold only 2,213 bitcoin, at an average price of $73,078, for roughly $161.7 million, about a tenth of the first quarter’s volume. The company posted a $611.3 million net loss for the quarter, driven in part by roughly $343 million in fair-value losses on its digital assets and related receivables.

Why MARA’s Selling Pace Changed So Much

MARA’s average sale price was about $71,800 per bitcoin in the first quarter and $73,078 in the second, a difference of roughly two percent, not enough to explain a nearly 90 percent drop in volume.

A more direct read: the bulk of the first quarter’s selling was tied to a specific, one-time goal, paying down $1.0 billion in convertible debt, and that goal was met in March. Once it was met, MARA had less immediate need to keep selling at the same pace, and the fair-value losses booked in the second quarter gave it an added reason to hold off realizing more losses at depressed prices.

Thiel has described bitcoin mining as the base the company is building on top of, not the asset it is chasing. On the Q2 earnings call, he put it directly:

“Bitcoin mining provided the foundation, digital infrastructure, Exaion, and our technology initiatives expand the value we can create from that foundation.”

MARA is treating bitcoin less like a long-term holding and more like a funding source for its Exaion AI/HPC subsidiary, the pending $1.5 billion Long Ridge acquisition and the new $600 million Texas data center campus.

If that read is right, financing for the $1.5 billion Long Ridge deal and the $600 million Texas project should increasingly come from debt, equity or project-level financing rather than further bitcoin sales. If MARA instead resumes selling at anywhere close to the first quarter’s pace once those deals need funding, that would undercut the idea that the pivot’s financing has moved past the treasury.

Part of a Wider Retreat From HODL

Bitcoin miners including CleanSpark, Riot Platforms, Cango, Core Scientific and Bitdeer sold a combined total put at more than 32,000 bitcoin in the first quarter of 2026 alone, more than the entire industry sold across all of 2025.

The company’s own disclosures confirm a similar shift on its side: it changed its digital asset policy in the second half of 2025 to permit selling bitcoin generated from mining, then expanded that policy in 2026 to allow sales from its existing balance-sheet holdings as well. Holdings kept climbing to the all-time high noted above even after that first policy change took effect.

Timeline: MARA’s H1 2026 Bitcoin Sales

• March 2026: MARA holds 53,822 BTC, an all-time high.
• March 4–25, 2026: 15,133 BTC sold (~$1.1B) to fund a $1.0B convertible-note buyback.
• Q1 2026 total: 20,880 BTC sold (~$1.5B).
• Q2 2026: 2,213 BTC sold (avg. $73,078, ~$161.7M); $611.3M net loss reported.
• Aug. 3, 2026: 7,500 BTC (~$480M) moved to Two Prime, not confirmed as a sale.
• Aug. 6, 2026: 10-Q filed, confirming the 23,093 BTC / $1.63B H1 total.