MARA Holdings (MARA), the largest bitcoin (BTC) miner by market capitalization, has announced that it is lending out 7,377 BTC to third parties, aiming to earn a return on its bitcoin holdings and offset operational expenses.

In a production report released on Friday, MARA revealed that this lending program ties up about 16% of its total bitcoin. However, the company did not disclose the identities of the borrowers or provide further details on the specifics of the arrangement. Robert Samuels, vice president of investor relations at MARA, shared in a post on X that the lending program is currently yielding a return of less than 10%. “There has been notable interest in MARA’s bitcoin lending program,” Samuels wrote. “It focuses on short-term agreements with reputable third parties, generating a modest single-digit yield. The program has been active throughout 2024, with the ultimate goal of generating sufficient yield to cover operational costs.”

In its December mining performance, MARA produced 890 BTC, which was a 2% decrease compared to November. Despite this, the December production figure remains the second-highest since April’s reward halving.

MARA’s Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel commented, “We mined 249 blocks in December, marking the second-largest block production month in our history. MARAPool achieved a remarkable 168% growth in hash rate in 2024, outpacing bitcoin’s network growth rate of 49%.”

For the full year of 2024, MARA acquired 22,065 BTC at an average price of $87,205 and mined an additional 9,457 BTC. This brought the company’s total bitcoin holdings to 44,893 BTC. With bitcoin currently trading just below $100,000, MARA is now the second-largest publicly traded bitcoin holder, behind only MicroStrategy (MSTR).

MARA shares saw a 2.60% increase in pre-market trading and have gained 14% so far in 2025.