Crypto miner MARA wants US moving quicker to gobble up Bitcoin

Crypto miner MARA Holdings has urged the United States to act more aggressively to “secure dominant positions in Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining,” claiming it’s a matter of national security. 

“The United States faces an urgent need to secure its economic and national security interests,” MARA wrote in a Nov. 26 X post. 

The miner added that the US needs to take the lead in holding Bitcoin (BTC $93,061) just like it has with gold, particularly with the rising trend of de-dollarization — countries shedding reliance on the US dollar. 

“The dollar is no longer directly backed by gold, yet holding substantial gold reserves remains a matter of national security,” MARA claimed. “These reserves provide the US with the ability to transact should foreign nations lose confidence in the dollar.”

MARA Holdings, formerly known as Marathon Digital, noted that the US holds just over 200,000 Bitcoin, and China is right behind at around 190,000 BTC.

Meanwhile, World Gold Council data shows the US holds 8,133 metric tonnes of gold as of the second quarter of 2024, compared to China’s 2,264 tonnes.

“As speculation grows about countries preemptively building Bitcoin reserves ahead of the forthcoming Trump Administration, the US must move swiftly to secure dominant positions in Bitcoin and Bitcoin mining,” it said. 

MARA said much of this will come down to ensuring the US controls a significant share of the global hashrate, preventing “adversarial nations” from censoring or manipulating its Bitcoin transactions.

“Failing to secure a sufficient share of blockspace and hashrate leaves the US vulnerable to external pressures in a world where Bitcoin’s importance as a financial and geopolitical tool is rapidly growing,” it added.

MARA CEO Fred Thiel has previously warned of growing hashrate power from China and Russia. Source: Fred Thiel

MARA has recommended a six-prong plan to tackle the threat, one of which includes encouraging the domestic production of mining hardware (ASIC chips) to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers. 

At the moment, the China-based Bitmain is the world’s leading manufacturer of crypto mining hardware, with a market share of around 75% (though some have estimated it to be as much as 90%), followed by MicroBT — also based in China. 

The crypto miner has also called for more investment into US Bitcoin mining, the set up of a Bitcoin strategic reserve and more legal clarity and incentives for Bitcoin miners and investors and for the US to set global standards for decentralized networks. 

Mara was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While most of its energized compute is based in the US, including Texas, North Dakota and Nebraska, it also has joint venture operations in Paraguay and Dubai.