Bitcoin Miner MARA Lends Out $726 Million Worth of BTC to Generate Yield and Cover Rising Operating Expenses

MARA's Director of Investor Relations, Robert Samuels, shared that these loans are “short-term arrangements with well-established third parties,” but he didn’t name names.

Bitcoin miner Marathon Digital (NASDAQ:MARA) has taken an interesting turn in its strategy, a move that’s generated a modest return but could lead to a new revenue stream for the company.

In its latest production update, MARA revealed that it has loaned out 7,377 BTC — roughly 16% of its total reserves. At today’s prices, that’s about $726 million worth of Bitcoin.

The company says this is part of a calculated plan to generate yield and cover rising operating expenses.

MARA’s Director of Investor Relations, Robert Samuels, shared that these loans are “short-term arrangements with well-established third parties,” but he didn’t name names.

In its production update, MARA also revealed that it mined 9,457 BTC throughout 2024 and went shopping for an additional 22,065 BTC at an average price of $87,205. That’s nearly $2 billion spent on Bitcoin. As of press time, MARA held 44,893 BTC, valued at about $4.4 billion.

Modest returns, bold strategy

The company’s lending program isn’t pulling in massive profits yet. Samuels called the returns “a modest single-digit yield,” adding that MARA experimented with Bitcoin loans throughout 2024.

“The long-term objective is to generate sufficient yield to offset operating expenses,” Samuels said.

This approach is risky in a market still舔舐wounds from the collapse of lenders like BlockFi, Genesis, Celsius, and Babel in 2022. Those meltdowns exposed just how dangerous counterparty risks can be, but MARA appears confident in its choice of partners.

Despite the risks, MARA raked in $3.9 million in interest income during Q3 2024. Most of this came from cash on its balance sheet and Bitcoin loans. By mid-2024, the company had already generated $4.8 million in interest income, though earlier filings didn’t specify Bitcoin lending as part of the haul.

Breaking the 50 EH/s barrier

MARA also broke the 50 exahash per second (EH/s) mark, ending the year with an energized hashrate of 53 EH/s.

Though the realized hashrate — what’s actually contributing to the Bitcoin network — remained steady at 47 EH/s. That consistency didn’t go unnoticed in a year where Bitcoin miners faced halved block rewards following the April 2024 halving.

Bitcoin miners break record as 2025 begins

The Bitcoin mining industry has started 2025 with a bang. On January 3, the network’s total hashrate hit 1,000 exahashes per second (EH/s) — double the 510 EH/s recorded in January 2024.

This comes despite the halving, which cut mining rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. It slashed miner revenues in half, but instead of slowing down, miners threw billions into better rigs and energy-saving systems to stay profitable. The investments are paying off.

The realized hashrate, which measures the actual computing power being used to mine blocks, stood at 47 EH/s over the last 24 hours, according to data from BTC.com. This metric provides a more accurate representation of the hashrate contributing to the network’s security.

The total hashrate, on the other hand, takes into account the potential hashrate of all connected mining pools, whether or not they are actively contributing to the network at a given time. This broader measure of hashrate capacity is often used to assess the overall strength and competitiveness of the Bitcoin mining ecosystem.

At the beginning of 2024, the total hashrate was around 300 EH/s. It has since more than tripled, reaching new highs as miners continue to ramp up their operations in response to rising difficulty and block intervals.

The sustained increase in hashrate is a testament to the resilience and adaptability of the Bitcoin mining industry. Even in the face of adversity, such as the halving and the crypto market downturn of 2022, miners have shown a remarkable ability to pivot and innovate in order to remain profitable and continue supporting the network.