MARA Holdings CFO on the race to mine and stockpile bitcoin

The increased competition on the corporate bitcoin treasury scene is nothing to worry about for bitcoin miner MARA Holdings. 

The second-largest corporate bitcoin holder, with 49,179 bitcoin, adopted a “full HODL strategy” in July 2024.

Salman Khan, MARA’s CFO, spoke with Sherwood News about the company’s views on the corporate bitcoin treasury stockpiling race, the potential threat of quantum computing to the bitcoin network, and what sets MARA apart.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Sherwood News: As the second-largest corporate bitcoin holder, what do you make of the increasingly crowded field, with newcomers like Nakamoto and Twenty One?

Salman Khan: The increasing number of corporate players entering the bitcoin space is, in my view, a net positive for the ecosystem and for MARA. From a financial standpoint, this trend signals growing institutional adoption and validates bitcoin’s role as a treasury asset, an asset class, and a long-term store of value. It indicates a broader understanding and acceptance of bitcoin’s financial benefits, moving beyond early speculative narratives.

MARA has been one of the earliest proponents of bitcoin as a treasury reserve asset. Our foresight in accumulating bitcoin has positioned us strongly within this evolving financial landscape.

Sherwood: Unlike Strategy, MARA has sold bitcoin as part of its business operations. Do you plan on continuing that practice going forward, or is there more pressure to HODL bitcoin in this environment? 

Khan: The fundamental difference between MARA and other treasury companies is that, while being the second-largest holder of bitcoin in the corporate world, we are also the largest publicly traded bitcoin miner. While other treasury companies’ core business may be unrelated to bitcoin, we produce bitcoin at under $35,000 electricity cost per coin through our operations, which is one of the lowest among large-scale public miners. This allows us to produce and hold bitcoin at approximately a third of what treasury companies pay to buy on the open market. We call this a twin-turbo strategy, where we accumulate bitcoin by either producing at our data centers or buying it on open markets opportunistically. 

While it’s true that MARA has historically sold bitcoin to fund our operations, that practice has fundamentally changed. We adopted a full HODL strategy in July 2024. Since then, we have not sold any bitcoin. We believe that in the current environment, retaining our mined bitcoin is paramount to maximizing shareholder value and solidifying our position as a leading holder of this appreciating digital asset. 

Sherwood: Can you explain what sets you apart from other bitcoin miners? 

Khan: What really sets MARA apart from other bitcoin miners is our deep commitment to becoming a vertically integrated digital energy and infrastructure company. MARA thrives where energy meets technology.

Unlike many miners who simply plug into existing grids and rely on third-party services to host their machines or perform other functions, we aim to control every aspect of our bitcoin production. This approach means we are increasingly owning our power generation to achieve near net-zero operating costs, as exemplified by our recent acquisition of a Texas wind farm. 

Additionally, we develop and use our own proprietary software. This includes our own mining pool, MARA Pool, which is the only self-owned and -operated mining pool among public miners. This unique control allows us to capture the full value of block rewards, avoiding external fees, and contributing to our industry-leading block production. We believe our MARA Pool is 10% more efficient than other third-party mining pools. Moreover, we’ve been founding investors in American-made hardware — MARA is close partners with Auradine, the only large-scale US-based bitcoin miner manufacturer that has developed both industry-leading high-performance chips and scalable infrastructure. 

Sherwood: What would you like to see on the crypto regulation front?

Khan: We’re hopeful we’ll see the development of clear and standardized guidelines for bitcoin holdings and reporting. As a publicly traded company holding significant bitcoin reserves, transparent and consistent accounting and reporting standards are essential for investor confidence and regulatory compliance. 

Lastly, favorable regulations encouraging banks and financial institutions to bank with bitcoin miners will level the playing field with other industries. Historically, this industry has been de-banked. In a business-friendly country like the United States, just simply opening a commercial banking relationship should be a simpler process with easy access to global commercial banks.

Sherwood: Do you think quantum computing is a threat to bitcoin mining?

Khan: While we believe it may take a while for quantum compute to be viable at massive scale, it poses an increasingly real threat not just to the bitcoin network but also commercial banks and traditional technologies. This issue is similar to the “Y2K” problem, where everyone thought the world would collapse as the year changed to 2000. Smarter minds came together with a solution mindset and saved the world. While MARA is at the forefront of R&D and finding solutions, I believe because quantum compute can be challenging for almost all sectors and because of its larger implications on the worldwide economy, it will likely be addressed in a similar fashion as Y2K.