Bitcoin’s Second-Largest Corporate Holder Just Changed the Rules: Is MicroStrategy Next?

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MARA Holdings has officially rewritten its Bitcoin strategy, expanding its financial policy to allow for the sale of Bitcoin held directly on its balance sheet.

Given that MARA is second only to Michael Saylor’s firm among public companies holding BTC, this raises questions as to whether Strategy (MicroStrategy) will be next.

The move, detailed in its annual 10-K filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 2, 2026, marks the first time MARA has explicitly authorized the liquidation of its accumulated inventory.

An excerpt from the filing reads: “In the second half of 2025, we changed our digital asset management strategy to allow for the sale of Bitcoin generated by our operations. In 2026, we expanded this strategy to allow for the sale of Bitcoin held on our balance sheet. As a result, we may hold Bitcoin for long-term investment purposes and may also buy and sell Bitcoin from time to time based on market conditions and our capital allocation priorities.”

This marks a departure from its previous “full hold” stance, with the legal framework for liquidating the company’s entire reserves now in force. Notably, no immediate sale has been announced.

As of this writing, MARA holds 53,822 BTC, worth $3.59 billion at the current price of $66,565 per BTC. This makes it the second-largest holder of Bitcoin from a publicly traded company, behind Strategy, which holds 720,737 Bitcoin at the time of writing.

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Top Public Companies Holding Bitcoin
Top Public Companies Holding Bitcoin. Source: Bitcoin Treasuries

Approximately 72% of MARA’s assets (38,507 BTC) remain in unrestricted long-term vaults. The remaining 28%, or approximately 15,315 BTC, has been “activated” under its digital asset management program.

Of this amount, 9,377 BTC was lent and will generate $32.1 million in interest income by 2025, while 5,938 BTC was pledged as collateral for a $350 million credit line.

Together with $547 million in cash, MARA controls approximately $5.3 billion in liquid assets.

The more pressing concern, however, is that more than 53,000 BTC represents a potential oversupply in an already fragile market environment. This is particularly worrisome if miner stress intensifies.

The shift caps off a gradual change following MARA’s 2024 10-K policy, which described a strict policy of retaining all mined and purchased Bitcoin “for the foreseeable future.”

In the second half of 2025, the company began selling newly mined BTC to fund operations, selling 4,076 BTC for $413.1 million in proceeds.

The 2026 expansion now extends this flexibility to entire balance sheet reserves. The policy change comes after a tumultuous fourth quarter.

MARA reported a net loss of $1.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2025, primarily due to non-cash fair value adjustments after Bitcoin fell approximately 30% in late 2025. The company also recorded a $422.2 million decline in fair value and impairment losses related to its digital assets.

Notably, MARA recently formed a joint venture with Starwood Capital to develop artificial intelligence and high-performance computing data centers to repurpose its energy infrastructure.

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Monetizing Bitcoin could fund the transition from energy to artificial intelligence without further diluting shareholder equity through stock issuance.

Unlike MARA, Strategy continues to describe Bitcoin as a “major treasury reserve asset” and has recently increased its holdings.

Company executives emphasized that the sales would only occur in extreme liquidity situations and not as an opportunistic capital allocation tool.

“We are not selling. Instead, I believe we will buy Bitcoin every quarter forever,” Michael Saylor said in a recent interview.

At the current price of Bitcoin, Strategy is facing short-term pressure, largely due to unrealized losses on its massive Bitcoin vault.

The focus of MARA appears to be on specific miners rather than the industry as a whole. Still, the symbolism is important. Corporate Bitcoin vaults were once viewed as permanent supply pools.

MARA’s 10-K signals a mature approach in which Bitcoin is not just capital of belief but a dynamic balance sheet instrument.

Nonetheless, the market will now look to future 8-K and quarterly filings and on-chain processes to truly test this flexibility for the first time.

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Read original story Bitcoin’s second-largest corporate holder just changed the rules: Is MicroStrategy next? Author: Lockridge Okoth from beincrypto.com

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