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Story: MARA Dumps $1.5B in to Cut Debt, Eyes AI Power Play in Ohio

By Pankaj K

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Revenue Drops, Losses Pile Up. Marathon's Q1 numbers weren't pretty. Revenue fell 18% year-over-year to $174.

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Natural Gas Plant and AI Bet. The pivot to AI infrastructure came with a major acquisition.

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Marathon Digital just sold a massive chunk of its Bitcoin stash. The miner offloaded roughly 20,880 BTC for about $1.5 billion, getting an average price of $70,137 per coin.

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The sale dropped Marathon's holdings from 38,689 BTC down to around 35,303 BTC. That still leaves the firm sitting in fourth place among public Bitcoin holders, but it's a sharp…

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Marathon's Q1 numbers weren't pretty. Revenue fell 18% year-over-year to $174.6 million, and the company posted a net loss of $1.26 billion.

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So Marathon sold. Between March 4 and March 25, the company dumped 15,133 BTC as part of the broader liquidation. That's about 54% of what it held before the sale.

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The pivot to AI infrastructure came with a major acquisition. Marathon bought Long Ridge Energy's 505-megawatt natural gas plant in Hannibal, Ohio.

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CEO Fred Thiel didn't spell out every detail, but the strategy seems pretty clear. Use Bitcoin as liquidity to manage debt, then redeploy capital into AI infrastructure that can…

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The Ohio plant gives Marathon a foothold in the AI infrastructure space. Energy-intensive AI workloads need reliable power, and owning the generation capacity outright means…

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See also: BTC Hits $82K Ceiling as Profit-Taking Mirrors 2022 Bear Rally Pattern

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Market reaction has been mixed. Some see the Bitcoin sale as a sign Marathon lost faith in its own thesis.

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Marathon isn't alone in exploring AI. Several Bitcoin miners have started looking at AI infrastructure as a way to diversify revenue and smooth out cash flow.

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But the timing is tricky. Marathon sold Bitcoin at an average of $70,137, which is decent but not a top-tick.

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The $71 million accounting gain from buying back convertible notes at a discount also helps.

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More context: Nakamoto CEO Pockets Millions While Holders Watch $238M Q1 Wipeout

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