In this round of operations, MARA first faced its balance sheet, which is highly tied to the price of Bitcoin. After the end of the third quarter of 2025, this Bitcoin mining company sold 13,597 Bitcoins in a one-time transaction, cashing out approximately 1.1 billion dollars, of which 750 million dollars was directly used to fully repay a term loan secured by Bitcoin, in exchange for redeeming the previously pledged 17,477 Bitcoins from creditors. With this loan cleared and the pledging fully released, the Bitcoins currently borrowed or pledged by MARA account for less than 5% of the total holdings, most of the inventory has transformed from "collateral locked on the liability side" back into "unrestricted assets." Almost simultaneously, the board approved a stock buyback authorization of up to 500 million dollars, and the company made it clear in its communication to shareholders that it would continue to raise cash through Bitcoin for investments in AI infrastructure, the repayment pressure of convertible bonds in 2026, and potential buyback reserves — a mining company that is actively deleveraging while transforming its Bitcoin from risk exposure into cash ammunition for future AI and convertible bond strategies.

13,597 Sold, 17,477 Redeemed to De-leverage

Breaking down this transaction, MARA first sold 13,597 Bitcoins after the end of the third quarter of 2025, cashing out approximately 1.1 billion dollars, of which 750 million dollars was used to repay the previously secured term loan with Bitcoin, while the remaining funds entered the company's "ammunition depot," reserving space for subsequent AI infrastructure, convertible bond redemption, and potential buybacks. With this collateral loan fully repaid, a chain reaction in the pledge structure unfolded: the 17,477 Bitcoins previously held in the creditor's account were all released back to the company, and the proportion of Bitcoin holding that was borrowed or pledged rapidly dropped to below 5%, shifting the balance sheet from "high leverage + high pledging" to "low leverage + high freedom" in position state.

This choice itself is a clear capital strategy: as a Bitcoin mining company, MARA's stock price, profitability, and Bitcoin price are highly correlated; if it continues to finance through additional debt, it will only amplify the balance sheet risks in a downturn in Bitcoin prices, while raising equity capital by issuing new shares would dilute the interests of existing shareholders. With sufficient Bitcoin inventory, actively selling part of the assets for cash, using high-volatility assets to repay highly certain liabilities, and then redeeming a larger amount of pledged Bitcoin equates to lowering the leverage ratio and dispersing the pledged position all at once, while turning future price risks from "risk of debt default" into "market value fluctuation risk of unpledged inventory."

Pledge Reduced to 5%: Bitcoin Converted to Reserve Ammo

When the borrowed or pledged Bitcoins drop to less than 5%, MARA’s balance sheet shifts from "locked in counterpart clauses" to "holding the vast majority of chips." The previously pledged 17,477 Bitcoins have all been redeemed, meaning this output is no longer tied to loan contracts and additional margin requirements, but has returned to the company's own controllable wallet. For a mining company with a high Bitcoin exposure, this step significantly weakens external risks such as counterparty default, liquidation, and margin calls, pulling more variables back to time points and price ranges that it can decide, and significantly reducing the constraints on assets being pledged or occupied.

In the shareholder letter, management emphasized a more conservative approach to managing Bitcoin liquidity and reducing counterparty risk exposure, resonating with the pledge ratio dropping to below 5%: the Bitcoin inventory is no longer primarily serving as high-leverage collateral, but has transformed into a "reserve ammo" that can be deployed at any time. As the industry enters the next round of volatility cycles, these unrestricted inventories can accelerate liquidation when prices are favorable, providing funding for AI infrastructure investments, convertible bond redemptions, or potential stock buybacks, and can also choose to remain idle in unfavorable market conditions, avoiding passive selling or forced liquidation. For a mining company like MARA, a lower pledge ratio fundamentally translates to sacrificing some short-term leveraged gains in exchange for maintaining strategic buffer space in controlling cycle switches, business transformations, and capital returns.

From Mining to Computing Power: Bitcoin Safeguarding AI and Convertible Bonds

After completing deleveraging, MARA did not simply regard the released Bitcoin as "positions," but publicly positioned them as a set of fundraising tools that can be utilized at any time. The company explicitly stated in the shareholder letter that it will continue to raise cash by selling or disposing of Bitcoin for three directions: first, to increase investment in AI infrastructure, extending traditional mining operations into computing power and data center services; secondly, to prepare cash in advance for the redemption of convertible bonds due in 2026; and thirdly, to provide potential funding sources for the stock buyback plan authorized by the board, with a maximum scale of 500 million dollars. For a company, this means actively transforming a balance sheet highly correlated with Bitcoin prices into a set of ammo centered around "computing power + capital structure optimization."

From a business perspective, MARA's core still revolves around Bitcoin mining, but extending towards computing power and AI infrastructure implies heavier capital expenditure: more data centers, higher power-consuming equipment, and longer-term investments in electricity and real estate, all requiring sustained and controllable cash flow support. Within this framework, Bitcoin is no longer just output and inventory, but has been embedded into the capital plan for the next two years — both to fund AI infrastructure and to address the redemption rights of convertible bonds on specified dates. Convertible bond redemptions mean that holders can request the company to repurchase bonds with cash, and if it can only rely on refinancing or passive share issuance, both equity dilution and financing costs will rise; on the other hand, raising funds with Bitcoin in advance acts as "insurance" for its debt maturity point, aiming to respond to redemptions with internally generated cash without transmitting pressure onto new debt or equity dilution. The core of this arrangement is to make Bitcoin first serve as fuel for AI computing power expansion, and then convert it into a buffer pad that alleviates refinancing risks before debt maturity.

500 Million Buyback Authorization: Stock Price Signals and Subsequent Games

After completing the cash out of 1.1 billion dollars in Bitcoin, repaying 750 million dollars in collateral loans, and retrieving 17,477 Bitcoins, the MARA board then issued a stock buyback authorization of up to 500 million dollars, which seems more like a signal directed at the secondary market: management believes that under the current conditions of deleveraging, with the Bitcoin pledge ratio reduced to below 5% and a significant unlock of inventory, the company's stock price does not align with the inherent elasticity of Bitcoin, and the authorized buyback serves as a public bet on its asset pricing. However, this authorization itself is merely "opening the gates," and does not equate to immediate or full execution. Whether it can truly materialize depends on several variables: first, the price of Bitcoin and future sales pace, determining whether the company can generate more cash without re-leveraging; second, the prioritization of cash flow between AI infrastructure investment and the redemption of convertible bonds due in 2026, where shareholder buybacks clearly fall lower on this priority chain; third, how management balances the decision between “continuing to let Bitcoin serve as growth fuel” or “locking in some returns through buybacks” at different price levels. As of now, there are no public materials showing executed or completed buybacks, the subsequent verification of whether this path favors shareholder returns or expansion investments will rely on company announcements and on-chain Bitcoin sale and holding changes as displayed by AiCoin data, making the actual buyback scale and pace, the frequency and timing of further Bitcoin sales, the speed of AI infrastructure advancement, and whether convertible bonds are resolved with cash or other means, key variables in observing the success or failure of MARA's capital strategy of "first deleveraging with Bitcoin and then retaining flexibility."

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