Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Holdings MARA, expressed gratitude for the company’s achievements this Thanksgiving, highlighting a record market cap and mining success.
What Happened: Thiel took to social media on Friday to commend the efforts of his team at MARA. As per Benzinga Pro, MARA reached a market cap of $9.03 billion as of Friday’s pre-market hours. This comes on the heels of Bitcoin BTC/USD rising steadily and reaching a $96,000 level. At the time of writing, BTC was valued at $97,375.73.
Meanwhile, other companies with significant bitcoin holding such as MicroStrategy Inc. MSTR clocked a market cap of $93.99 billion while Coinbase Global Inc. COIN clocked a market cap $80.87 billion.
In July, MARA Holdings opted for a “full HODL” strategy for its Bitcoin treasury policy and retailed all Bitcoin mines while periodically making strategic open market purchases.
On Thursday, MARA expanded its Bitcoin holdings by issuing $1 billion in zero-coupon convertible senior notes. This allowed the company to pick an additional 703 Bitcoins, bringing the total number of Bitcoins purchased through this issuance to 6,474. Currently, MARA has 34,794 Bitcoins in its holdings.
Thiel celebrated the company’s record-high market cap and an impressive month of mining, with an energized hash rate nearing 50 EH/s.
He ended with an optimistic “Must be something still to come to top off MARA's 2024…or?”
At the time of writing, MARA was up by 2.23%. Based on the ratings of 17 analysts, the consensus price target for the company is $23.83, as per Benzinga Pro data. However, the three most recent analyst ratings by Barclays, Compass Point, and Macquarie imply a 2.28% downside for MARA.
Why It Matters: The company’s third-quarter earnings report in November revealed a 35% year-over-year increase in total revenue, although it missed revenue and EPS estimates. MARA’s energized hash rate rose by 9% to 40.2 EH/s, and the company mined 2,070 Bitcoins during the quarter.
However, the broader market context shows challenges. Bitcoin’s recent price decline affected stocks like MARA, MicroStrategy and Coinbase. These stocks fell by 3.63%, 3.33%, and 3.40%, respectively, as Bitcoin’s rally stalled.
Thiel recently requested the incoming Trump administration to enhance U.S. Bitcoin mining operations. By increasing its share of the global hash rate, MARA aims to protect U.S. economic interests and maintain a competitive advantage in the cryptocurrency market.
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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
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