MARA Buys 5771 Bitcoin with Half of $1B Convertible Raise

Bitcoin mining giant MARA has purchased 5,771 BTC using $551 million of the $1 billion raised this week through a zero-coupon convertible note offering.

In a social media update on Friday, MARA announced that it acquired the Bitcoin at an average price of $95,554 per BTC, bringing its total holdings to approximately 33,875 BTC as of Nov. 23. The recent purchase represents about 17% of MARA’s total Bitcoin reserves.

Earlier this week, MARA initially proposed issuing convertible notes with an aggregate principal of $700 million but later upsized the offering to $850 million. The initial purchasers also exercised an option to add $150 million, allowing MARA to complete the $1 billion raise.

With Bitcoin trading at $99,000, MARA’s holdings are now valued at approximately $3.4 billion, accounting for about 40% of the company’s market capitalization as of Friday.

In August, MARA also raised $300 million via convertible notes and acquired about 4,000 BTC using a portion of the proceeds. Hence, it has acquired approximately 10,000 BTC from the market with two rounds of convertible notes financing.

MARA’s stock closed at $26.03 per share on Friday, rising 7.65% intraday. The stock has nearly doubled since hitting a local low of $13.17 in early September but has gained only 10.8% year-to-date, underperforming Bitcoin’s 133% rally over the same period.