Major Bitcoin mining companies worldwide are radically revising their treasury management strategies as they enter the second quarter of 2026. Policy changes announced successively by MARA Holdings, Core Scientific, and Riot Platforms signal the beginning of a new era in the sector: Bitcoin reserves accumulated over the years are no longer being held in vaults but are being released into the market to meet operational needs and growth investments.
MARA: Accumulated reserves also opened for sale
MARA Holdings, which holds the most BTC among publicly traded Bitcoin miners, announced a significant strategy change in its annual 10-K report submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday. The company expanded its policy, which allowed only the sale of Bitcoins obtained from mining operations in the second half of 2025, to include accumulated reserves on the balance sheet as of 2026. "In 2026, we expanded the strategy to allow for the sale of Bitcoins held on our balance sheet," said MARA, adding that from now on, it can both hold Bitcoin for long-term investment and buy and sell it according to market conditions and capital priorities. As of December 31, 2025, MARA has 53,822 BTC, with a total reserve value of approximately $4.7 billion. As part of the company's active digital asset management strategy, 28% of these reserves, approximately 15,300 BTC, have been put into use through various financial instruments. In this context, 9,377 BTC have been lent to counterparties, while 5,938 BTC have been used as collateral for a $350 million loan. Although the lent Bitcoins have provided the company with $32.1 million in interest income, the picture is not entirely bright. The company experienced a loss of $422.2 million in value throughout 2025 due to the decline in Bitcoin's market value. Moreover, a separate account of 2,000 BTC established with the asset management company Two Prime in the second quarter, encompassing structured trading and hedging strategies, generated a net trading loss of $22.1 million by the end of the year. MARA terminated this mandate in December, withdrawing the remaining 1,777 BTC; the segment recorded a total loss of $69.1 million.
Core Scientific: Converting All Treasury to Cash
Another major mining and data center company, Core Scientific, is taking an even more radical step. The company announced that it plans to sell all of its Bitcoin reserves throughout 2026 to finance its AI data center expansion. The majority of the sales are expected to take place in the first quarter of 2026, with the total amount expected to be around 2,500 BTC. "Throughout 2026, depending on market conditions, we anticipate converting almost all of our Bitcoin holdings to cash, increasing our liquidity, and meeting planned capital expenditures," the company stated, signaling a complete abandonment of its digital asset accumulation policy. Core Scientific, which holds approximately 2,537 BTC in reserves as of November 2025, reported this amount including both BTC in known wallets and additional revenue from mining activities. The company considered the significant revenue decline experienced last year when making this decision. In the fourth quarter of 2025, mining revenue nearly halved compared to the same period of the previous year, falling from $79.9 million to $42.2 million; the amount of BTC produced also decreased by 57 percent. Despite this, the company is attempting to build a new growth model by focusing on artificial intelligence infrastructure. CORZ shares have gained over 62 percent in value in the last year.
Riot Platforms: Bitcoin Sales Become a Financing Model
Riot Platforms is following a similar path. In a statement at its fourth-quarter earnings call, the company's Executive Vice President, Jason Chung, emphasized that Bitcoin sales have now become an integral part of the company's financing strategy. Chung stated that in addition to selling Bitcoins generated from monthly production, reserves directly on the balance sheet are also being released to the market for operational needs and growth investments. The most concrete example of this strategy was the acquisition of the Rockdale facility, which was entirely financed by Bitcoin sales; approximately 1,100 BTC from the treasury was used for this $96 million deal.
Riot also argues that its focus on data center development provides access to low-cost, non-diluting debt instruments, and that combining these instruments with Bitcoin sales is the most efficient financing method for shareholders. The company increased its full-year revenue by 71 percent throughout 2025, led by Bitcoin mining revenue. Riot, which ranks seventh among institutional Bitcoin holders with a reserve of 18,005 BTC, maintains a strong cash generation capacity while keeping pace with the overall transformation of the sector.
