Marathon Digital Holdings, the world’s largest Bitcoin miner, continues increasing its Bitcoin holdings as part of its “full HODL” approach.
Marathon Digital increased its holding by 2,282 Bitcoin (BTC), worth over $124 million at the current valuation.
This puts Marathon’s Bitcoin holdings at 20,818 BTC, worth over $1.14 billion, according to an announcement published on Aug. 6.
Whales, or large Bitcoin holding entities, can have a significant impact on Bitcoin’s price. Large entities switching to a long-term holding strategy is considered a bullish sign for the underlying asset’s future potential.
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Marathon goes “full HODL” on Bitcoin as a strategic treasury reserve asset
Marathon acquired $100 million worth of Bitcoin in July, aiming to make BTC a strategic treasury reserve asset, as reported by Cointelegraph.
Marathon plans to go “full HODL,” which is crypto slang for “hold on for dear life,” Fred Thiel, CEO and chairman of Marathon Digital, announced in a July 25 X post:
“Today Marathon is proud to announce that to strengthen our strategy of holding Bitcoin as our strategic treasury reserve asset, we have over the past month purchased $100 million in BTC, and will now go full HODL.”
Marathon’s Bitcoin strategy is a positive development, considering that the world’s largest Bitcoin miner isn’t capitulating despite a 50% cut in block rewards due to the 2024 Bitcoin halving, which could still force other miners to sell BTC.
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Marathon increases monthly Bitcoin production by 17%
Beyond just buying BTC, Marathon also increased its Bitcoin production to 692 BTC for the month of July, which marks a 17% month-over-month increase.
The firm holds a total of $1.6 billion in total Bitcoin and cash holdings, according to the announcement.
Marathon’s block wins also increased by 27% over the past month, according to Thiel, who wrote in the announcement:
“BTC production last month rose 17% to 692 BTC compared to June, and our average operational hash rate grew 5% over the same period to 27.5 EH/s. We will continue to mine aggressively while the global hash rate comes offline due to a lower BTC price and use all the tools at our disposal related to mining economics for maximum production.”
Notably, Marathon didn’t sell any Bitcoin during June either.
Magazine: Criminal at Bitcoin 2024, BTC Strategic Reserve Bill, and more: Hodler’s Digest, July 28–Aug. 3