Competition in the mining business was bound to force some people out of the business especially people who borrowed money for the business. I understand that MARA have to keep up with their loan obligations which is why they are selling which is not exactly the same thing with what MicroStrategy did but they have similarities.  To these people, bitcoin is strictly for business and nothing more so they don’t care about what the price becomes, they are after balancing the books.

They have operating costs to cover to continue the business, and I think almost all businesses have loans as it's the easier way to grow their business. Although it's sad that one of the big miners is leaving the industry, but it seems that's the trend now since there was also a thread created before about miners shifting to AI servers.

Based on the report it seems they are going that way, because they see that mining is no longer as profitable as before.
From the link, I would take their statement.


They did not say they are losing money but they probably see more potential for growth in AI infrastructure.

@Don Pedro Dinero --- Yes it's the trend but it will not disrupt the crypto industry.

They never said they were going to hold their bitcoin for the rest of their lives. They have been holding for long I guess.
If a bitcoin holder that has up to that number of bitcoins in their custody decides to sell part of their holdings for whatever reason best know to them, I don’t think that should be something anyone should have sleepless nights about.
They sold their bitcoins and people bought them, so no panic.
For bitcoin market to keep moving, someone have to sell and people have to buy.

We shouldn’t always look a the negative side of those selling, we should also look at the positive sides of those actively buying the bitcoins that are being sold.
For me the balance is still maintained so no panic.
I would have been worried if they wanted to sell and there were no buyers readily available to buy those bitcoins.

This isn’t a bad thing; a large amount of Bitcoin is being released into active circulation, reducing the concentration of Bitcoin ownership by a single company. Just imagine if that amount had been released when the price of Bitcoin reached $500k. Fortunately, the first phase of their transformation target is set to be completed in the first half of next year.

https://ir.mara.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/1419/mara-advances-its-optimized-digital-infrastructure-strategy-with-agreement-to-acquire-long-ridge-energy-power

It's a fair reason to pull the plug if they have other obligations like you have stated...and not sure if its a coincidence with falling prices in Bitcoin that they want out before their holdings fall in value $$ or they believe AI still holds greater potential than cryptos like Bitcoin.

And thinking about it, is the success of Bitcoin guaranteed when handled by people that have the passion for it,  or maybe crypto success is better when people that treat it as a business handle it?

Whatever the case, someone else will fill the void left by them when they leave..

They are a business, so it's only natural that they sell some of the Bitcoin they have to cover operational costs and to expand into the AI ​​industry, which is currently growing well. This decision is entirely about ensuring the long-term sustainability of their business. And it actually doesn't really impact the market that much, as the market can absorb the Bitcoin they are selling.

They moved to the Ai sector because they saw the potential but on the other hand the AI infrastructure is of various types while Bitcoin with its nature that is still unique, rare and limited should still be the first choice if based on community glasses. But they are businessmen and a businessman does not involve loyalty or idealism but risks, opportunities and promising profits, so the reason is quite reasonable.

Lol, i get it tha this is a BTC forum and many users try to 'support' BTC, but not with points like this above, that does not make any sense. There are many reasons why many BTC mining companies are switching to Ai and HPC, and many of those reasons are better for them right now, like higher profit margin and a long term guaranteed contract, rather than the volatile BTC market.

However, despite the trend, it does not call for any kind of panic. Even if some of these miners leave the network or operate a hybrid system, the network would adjust the difficulty to reflect what the network hashrate is. And this would also give smaller miners the chance to get some part of the block reward.

That’s theirs to decide.

Btw we haven’t seen any direct announcement from them saying they’ll leave the mining industry entirely, or did I miss it?

So they might probably consider diversifying by continuing with bitcoin mining and investing in AI data centers with their profits.. who knows , for now it’s just speculation.