- MARA pledged 18,750 BTC, over half its treasury, to raise $600 million without selling coins or issuing shares.
- The cash funds part of the $1.5 billion Long Ridge power plant deal behind MARA’s shift into AI.
- The filing hides the Bitcoin price that would trigger a margin call.
- Long Ridge needs FERC clearance by November 30, or MARA owes $75 million.
MARA Holdings borrowed $600 million against its Bitcoin on August 4, pledging 18,750 BTC to Coinbase Credit and Two Prime Lending in loans that only surfaced in a quarterly filing two days later. The coins were worth about $1.2 billion at closing, roughly 53% of the 35,577 BTC MARA held at the end of June. The cash has one main destination: the down payment on a $1.5 billion power plant the miner wants to rent out to artificial intelligence companies.
Selling coins would have triggered a tax bill; issuing stock would have diluted shareholders. Borrowing against the treasury keeps MARA’s Bitcoin upside intact and pulls cash from an otherwise idle reserve. CFO Salman Khan pitched the structure as fully non-dilutive.
$300M from Coinbase, $300M from Two Prime, MARA’s parent on the hook
The debt ran through two subsidiaries, Marathon Digital Financing LLC and MARA Power LLC, with MARA Holdings signing as guarantor. If either arm defaults, the parent’s assets stand behind the loans.
$300M new money inside a $450M facility that refinanced a $150M line. Rate = Fed midpoint + 3.875%. Matures Aug 2028, auto 1-year extension.
$300M standalone loan, no refinancing attached. Fixed rate locks the cost regardless of Fed moves. Matures Aug 2028.
Both facilities drew fully at closing. Across the $750 million, MARA now carries about $56.7 million in yearly interest, and the Coinbase leg moves with any Fed rate change. Pledged collateral covered the principal roughly 1.6 times over. Across the $750 million, MARA now carries about $56.7 million in yearly interest, a 7.56% weighted average cost on the new borrowing, and the Coinbase leg moves with any Fed rate change.
Energy cost $38,690 per Bitcoin, but the treasury lost value on paper
The quarter behind the loan shows why MARA reached for its coins. It posted a $611.3 million net loss on $174.9 million in revenue, but $343.0 million of that came from an unrealized markdown on its Bitcoin as the spot price fell to $58,524 by June 30, not from cash leaving the business. Mining itself was not underwater: MARA’s purchased energy cost ran $38,690 per Bitcoin, and it sold coins during the quarter at an average of $73,078.
The real pressure was liquidity. Cash dropped to $421.3 million from $547.1 million at year-end, and MARA kept funding operations by selling Bitcoin, 2,213 of the 2,422 it mined in Q2 and 23,093 coins across the half-year for about $1.6 billion. The treasury shrank from 53,822 BTC in December to 35,577 by June 30. Borrowing let the company raise $600 million without cutting that stack further.
MARA won’t tell shareholders the price that triggers liquidation
The initial loan-to-value ratio looks safe near 49%. The filing simply omits the number that matters in a crash: the Bitcoin price at which Coinbase or Two Prime can seize and sell the pledged coins. MARA confirmed it must hold agreed collateral ratios and that a shortfall counts as default, then filed the specific triggers under proprietary terms. It already had 4,528 BTC pledged before this deal, including 4,253 securing the refinanced Coinbase line. A sharp drop would force MARA to post more coins from a shrinking free pool or watch pledged Bitcoin get liquidated, with no published line to model against.
It’s buying a power plant to rent to AI
It runs a 485 MW combined cycle gas plant on more than 1,600 acres along the Ohio River, with over 70% of its output already contracted under long-term agreements, and it sits next to MARA’s existing Hannibal campus. That adjacency is the point: AI data centers are bottlenecked on power, so MARA wants to own the generation and lease it to hyperscalers alongside its partner Starwood. Management says it is confident of signing at least one lease before year-end.
The target is Long Ridge Energy & Power, a gas-fired plant in Hannibal, Ohio, bought from FTAI Infrastructure at a $1.5 billion enterprise value. It runs a 485 MW combined cycle gas plant on more than 1,600 acres along the Ohio River, and over 70% of its output is already contracted under long-term agreements. The plant sits next to MARA’s existing Hannibal campus, which is the point: AI data centers are bottlenecked on power, so MARA wants to own the generation and lease it to hyperscalers alongside its partner Starwood. Management says it is confident of signing at least one lease before year-end.
FERC has until November 30, or MARA pays $75 million
The acquisition needs Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approval and carries a hard completion deadline of November 30, 2026. Miss it and MARA owes a $75 million termination fee, though the window can stretch to June 30, 2027 if regulatory questions linger. MARA has locked up more than half its Bitcoin to fund a deal a regulator has not yet cleared.
- Bull: $600 million of non-dilutive capital, full Bitcoin upside retained, cheap financing for the pivot.
- Bear: a miner that sold 91% of its output has now bet half its treasury on undisclosed liquidation terms.
- Wildcard: the entire cash use hangs on FERC and a $75 million penalty clock.
The lease MARA still has to sign
The near-term test is not the loan but the tenants. Landing a hyperscaler or HPC lease before year-end would prove the shift from selling hashpower to selling electricity; failing leaves MARA paying $56.7 million a year on a plant it can’t yet monetize, on a rate that rises if the Fed stops cutting. And if Bitcoin slides before November, the missing liquidation price stops being a footnote and becomes the figure that decides how much treasury MARA still controls.