MARA moved $81 million of bitcoin to Galaxy and no one has said why
No sale is confirmed and neither company has explained the October 9 transfer. It lands on a treasury down a third this year, more than half of it pledged, and on an AI buildout whose first leases are due by December 31.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
The coins moved and the company stayed quiet
On October 9 the on-chain tracker Lookonchain flagged 996 bitcoin, worth $81.13 million, moving from an address labeled MARA−9.48% — MARA, down 9.48 percent today to one labeled Galaxy Digital, and titled the move a dump 12. The labels are Arkham's, and the blockchain shows a transfer and nothing more: no sale is confirmed and MARA has not commented 1. Its press page still lists nothing newer than the August 6 results 3, and its X account went quiet on October 8 4. Galaxy, a crypto financial firm running markets, custody and lending for more than 1,700 institutional counterparties, can receive coins for many reasons 4.
The stack is a third smaller and more than half is pledged
MARA, a Nasdaq-listed miner rebuilding itself as a landlord for AI data centers, held 53,822 bitcoin on February 26 and 35,577 by August 7 15. March explains most of the fall: 15,133 coins sold for about $1.1 billion to repurchase roughly $1 billion of convertible notes at a 9 percent discount, which chief executive Fred Thiel framed as capital allocation for the AI buildout 6. Across the first half the company sold 23,093 coins for about $1.63 billion, cutting debt from $3.6 billion to about $2.4 billion 7. It has also borrowed $600 million against the coins, leaving 54 percent of the stack pledged 8.
A third of MARA's treasury went between February and August
Data
| BTC holdings | |
|---|---|
| 26 Feb | 53,822 |
| 26 Mar | 38,689 |
| May 11 | 35,303 |
| 16 Jun | 36,303 |
| 7 Aug | 35,577 |
Mining is not paying for the pivot
Second-quarter revenue was $175 million against a $611 million net loss, $343 million of it paper losses on the company's own coins 89. Operating cash flow has been negative for ten straight quarters 9. Between October 6 and 13 the stock fell 17 percent as bitcoin slid toward $81,000 and a day of liquidations passed $1 billion 810. Morgan Stanley−0.77% — Morgan Stanley, down 0.77 percent today cut its target to $10 from $11 on October 9, kept its Underweight rating, and pointed to softening credit for AI sites without signed leases 1112. The shares showed $7.53, down 9.6 percent on the day, when the investor page was read on October 17 3.
Revenue has not once covered the operating cash burn
- Revenue
- Operating cash flow
Data
| Revenue | Operating cash flow | |
|---|---|---|
| Q1 '24 | $0.17B | -$0.09B |
| Q2 '24 | $0.15B | -$0.12B |
| Q3 '24 | $0.13B | -$0.16B |
| Q4 '24 | $0.21B | -$0.31B |
| Q1 '25 | $0.21B | -$0.22B |
| Q2 '25 | $0.24B | -$0.16B |
| Q3 '25 | $0.25B | -$0.2B |
| Q4 '25 | $0.2B | -$0.23B |
| Q1 '26 | $0.18B | -$0.25B |
| Q2 '26 | $0.18B | -$0.22B |
The other reading, and the date that settles it
A move on the blockchain does not confirm a sale, the first report was careful to say 1. March's selling had a stated purpose and a reward, a 10 percent stock pop on the day 7, and whales bought roughly 15,000 bitcoin into the same dip 7. MARA says it will keep monetizing bitcoin "opportunistically to fund operations and capital projects" 7. Its 4.8 gigawatt pipeline still assumes the Long Ridge power plant closing announced on April 30 313, and management expects at least two AI leases signed by December 31 8. The bitcoin is doing the paying and the leases are still doing the promising. The next holdings count settles what the 996 coins were; December 31 settles the rest.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
