The mining giant MARA, formerly known as Marathon Digital, has announced its intention to issue convertible bonds worth up to $850 million. The funds raised will be used, in particular, for a significant expansion of its bitcoin portfolio.
This is reported by Business • Media
Features of the bond issuance and plans for fund utilization
These are senior convertible bonds with a zero coupon and a maturity date in 2032. No dividends are provided for these securities; however, they are offered to investors at a discount to their nominal value, making them attractive to certain categories of investors. Additionally, MARA intends to provide an option for another $150 million, which, if fully realized, will increase the total financing amount to $1 billion. The bonds can be redeemed in either fiat currency or the company’s Class A common stock, or in a combination of both.
Approximately $50 million of the raised funds is planned to be directed towards repurchasing a previous batch of bonds maturing in 2026 with an annual rate of 1%. The majority of the capital will be used for general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of additional bitcoins.
MARA’s position in the market and investor reactions
As of July 2025, MARA ranks fourth among private and public companies in terms of the volume of bitcoins under its control. This approach to expanding crypto assets is actively employed by some other large companies as well. The ideological inspiration for this direction is considered to be Strategy — the largest corporate holder of bitcoins in the world.
“The miner’s shares reacted to the news with a decline, likely due to concerns about the dilution of existing shareholders’ stakes. At one point, they fell by more than 9%.”
Following the announcement of the new bond issuance, MARA’s shares on the Nasdaq dropped by more than 9%. This decline is attributed by experts to investors’ concerns regarding the potential dilution of shareholders’ stakes due to the conversion of bonds into common stock.
Many financial analysts point to the risks associated with using debt instruments for regular bitcoin purchases. Among the main issues are the low liquidity of such assets and their high sensitivity to the volatility of the cryptocurrency market.
Despite the recent decline in production metrics in June, MARA maintains ambitious goals — by the end of 2025, the company plans to increase its hash rate to 75 EH/s, which will strengthen its position in the bitcoin mining market.