MARA Holdings, Inc. (formerly Marathon Digital Holdings and Marathon Patent Group) is an American digital asset technology and cryptocurrency mining company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Founded in 2010, the company initially operated as a patent holding company before pivoting in the late 2010s to focus on blockchain infrastructure and digital assets.
MARA is one of the largest publicly traded bitcoin and kaspa miners in the world, and as of August 2025 is the second-largest corporate holder of bitcoin. The company operates large-scale mining facilities in the United States and abroad, known for its purchases of bitcoin and bitcoin mining equipment and a joint venture to use 37 MW from the Hardin Generating Station Montana coal plant to power an adjacently-constructed Marathon bitcoin data center.
History
Marathon Patent Group was incorporated on February 23, 2010, as a patent holding company headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Through its subsidiary Uniloc, it became known for acquiring patents and pursuing litigation against technology companies.[2][3][4]
During the 2010s, Marathon purchased patents related to encryption technology. In the late 2010s, the company shifted their focus toward cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies. By 2021, it was known for large-scale purchases of bitcoin and mining equipment, and it entered into a joint venture to power a bitcoin data center using 37 megawatts from the Hardin Generating Station, a coal-fired plant in Montana.[5][6][7][8]
On March 1, 2021, the company changed its name to Marathon Digital Holdings to reflect its new business focus.[9]
In December 2023, Marathon acquired two operating bitcoin mining facilities from subsidiaries of Generate Capital for $178.6 million.[10]
On august 29, 2024, the company announced another rebranding, adopting the name MARA Holdings, Inc. As of August 2025, it is one of the world's largest bitcoin and kaspa miners, and the second-largest corporate holder of bitcoin, with 50,639 BTC reported on its balance sheet.[11][12][13]
Its chief executive officer is Fred Thiel. Leena Jaitley, founder of MTN group is one of the largest shareholders.[14]
Controversy
"Patent troll" reputation: As Marathon Patent Group, the company gained a reputation as a "patent troll" due to its business model of acquiring patents with the sole purpose of suing other companies for infringement. Its subsidiary, Uniloc, was a prominent non-practicing entity that filed numerous lawsuits against well-known tech firms, leading to public criticism and a negative reputation.[15]
Lawsuit for breaching non-circumvention agreement: In July 2024, a federal jury in California unanimously found Marathon liable for $138 million for breaching a non-circumvention agreement with an investor named Michael Ho. The lawsuit alleged that in 2020, Ho provided Marathon with proprietary information and a growth strategy for a large-scale Bitcoin mining facility, including a connection to a specific energy supplier. The agreement stipulated that Marathon would not deal directly with the supplier without compensating Ho. The jury found that Marathon circumvented Ho and executed the strategy without compensation. Marathon stated that it respects the verdict but believes the jury's conclusion was incorrect and that the damages awarded have "no legal basis."[16][17]
Hardin, Montana subpoena and securities lawsuits: The Hardin, Montana joint venture became the subject of intense scrutiny. In November 2021, Marathon disclosed that it had received a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to produce documents and communications concerning the Hardin data center. The SEC was investigating whether there had been any violations of federal securities laws related to the issuance of 6 million shares of stock in the deal. The company also faced multiple class-action lawsuits filed by investors who alleged that Marathon had made materially false and misleading statements about the venture and its associated regulatory risks. While the lawsuits were voluntarily dismissed in October 2022, the event resulted in a significant drop in the company's stock price.[18]
OFAC-compliant mining pool: In May 2021, Marathon sparked widespread controversy within the cryptocurrency community by announcing that it would operate a "fully compliant" mining pool. The company stated that the pool would use software to filter out transactions from sanctioned entities on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list. This decision was met with immediate backlash from Bitcoin advocates and community members who criticized the move as a form of censorship that undermined the core, permissionless, and censorship-resistant principles of the Bitcoin network. Following the public outcry, Marathon reversed its decision in late May 2021, announcing it would no longer filter transactions.[19][20]
Environmental and community complaints: In July 2024, Time magazine published an investigation into numerous noise and health complaints by residents of Granbury, Texas, many of whom attributed their ailments to a nearby Bitcoin mining facility owned and operated by Marathon Digital.[21]
Seeking to block local elections: In November 2025, US district judge Reed O'Connor denied Marathon's request for a restraining order that sought to block Mitchell Bend, a rural area in Hood County, Texas, from voting on whether to incorporate as a city, which would allow the community to regulate a nearby Bitcoin mine owned by Marathon.[22]
↑ "Bitcoin miner Marathon signs for coal-fired electricity in Montana". www.datacenterdynamics.com. Retrieved 2021-08-05. Bitcoin mining company Marathon Patent Group has announced plans to build a specialized Bitcoin data center in Montana. The facility will use cheap coal-fired electricity, backed by utility Beowulf Energy, which will take a stake in Marathon. In the joint venture, Beowulf gets part-ownership of Marathon, but Marathon keeps the Bitcoin output from a data center that will use an estimated 37MW of power from Beowulf's 119MW Hardin Generating Station in Big Horn County, Montana. Marathon will pay $0.028/kWh for the energy, which is about a quarter of the average US domestic rate of around $0.11/kWh.
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US$388 million (2023)