14 Mar 2022
Which miners hodl the most bitcoin?
Most public bitcoin miners aim to keep as much as possible of the bitcoin they mine. Why do they pursue this balance sheet strategy, and which miners hodl the most bitcoin?
Marathon owns the most bitcoin, currently holding 8,956 BTC. Half of their bitcoin is self-mined, but they also bought 4,813 BTC in January 2021. While some other miners aim to be vertically integrated and own their own data centers, Marathon only invests in ASICs and bitcoin.Core Scientific is the second-largest bitcoin hodler of the miners, with 7,355 BTC. We find Hut 8 with 6,115 BTC in third place and Riot in fourth place with 5,783 BTC.According to bitcointreasuries.net, Marathon has the third-largest bitcoin treasury of any company, only behind MicroStrategy and Tesla. Their findings also show that six of the ten companies with the largest bitcoin treasuries are miners.Bitcoin mining companies aim to serve as bitcoin investment vehicles, helping to give investors bitcoin exposure without holding the asset directly. Therefore, they intend to build up bitcoin treasuries to be more correlated with the bitcoin price.Also, since mining is a capital-intensive business, and miners are constantly looking for expansion opportunities, they want to keep a liquid balance sheet. As bitcoin bulls, it makes sense for them to keep the bitcoin they earn instead of storing it in fiat currency. By tapping into public markets and debt financing, these miners can hodl the bitcoin they earn and use fiat to pay their costs.