MARA's $1.1B BTC sale may kick off wider miner liquidation, says analyst

The recent sale of Bitcoin by MARA Holdings (MARA) could be the start of a large-scale asset liquidation across the industry, according to Quinn Thompson, founder of crypto hedge fund Lekker Capital. In a post on X, Thompson noted that MARA Holdings' financial condition has deteriorated after it purchased BTC above $90,000 and subsequently sold over $1 billion worth of the asset at around $72,000. Thompson had previously pointed out on March 13 that a decline in hash rate was being led by miners such as Core Scientific (CORZ), TeraWulf (WULF), Cipher Digital (CIFR), and Iren (IREN). He suggested that the BTC held by these mining companies could exert short-term downward pressure on the market. MARA Holdings announced it had sold 15,133 BTC, valued at $1.1 billion, between March 4 and March 25.