Marathon Digital (MARA), the world’s second-largest Bitcoin (BTC) holder, saw its stock rally today after announcing plans to lend some of its tokens to third parties. According to the company, it will lend 7,377 BTC to unnamed parties. This represents roughly 16% of its total Bitcoin holdings.
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Marathon Digital is lending these BTC to unknown parties to generate yields in the single digits. These additional funds will help the company offset its operating expenses. Marathon Digital notes that this lending program has been in place throughout 2024 and that its BTC is lent out in short-term periods.
What This Means for MARA Stock
Investors are excited about the prospect of Marathon Digital utilizing its Bitcoin holdings to generate more money, which has the stock up 3.56% as of Monday morning. The company’s shares have also gained 20.66% year-to-date, helping offset its 22.11% drop over the past 52 weeks.
Bitcoin has seen strong movement over the last few months with predictions pinning continued gains in 2025. That seems likely with BTC currently trading above $102,000 per token, which is a new all-time high for the crypto. These milestones often raise digital asset stocks tied to BTC. This is another reason MARA is up today and could lead to additional rallies this year.
On a similar note, Microstrategy (MSTR) stock is up 5.2% as of this writing. Microstrategy is the biggest Bitcoin holding company and announced its first BTC purchase of 2025 today, adding 1,070 tokens to its hoard.
Is MARA Stock a Buy, Hold, or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, the analysts’ consensus rating for Marathon Digital is Moderate Buy based on four Buy and eight Hold ratings over the last three months. With that comes an average price target of $27.80, a high of $42, and a low of $23. This represents a potential 37.01% upside for MARA shares.
