MARA launches Bitcoin foundation in Las Vegas

MARA Holdings introduced the MARA Foundation at the Bitcoin 2026 conference in Las Vegas to fund protocol research, open-source development, self-custody infrastructure and policy work. The company committed $100,000 to be allocated by a community vote.

Voting on how to distribute the initial $100,000 opened at the conference and remains available online and at MARA’s booth through April 29. Three organizations are finalists for the award: SateNet, the 256 Foundation and Libreria de Satoshi. Each finalist focuses on different technical work such as improving network connectivity, developing mining software and providing technical training.

The foundation’s stated priorities include funding open-source tools, improving network connectivity, supporting mining software development and expanding resources for self-custody education. Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO, said the foundation is meant to support the protocol’s long-term health and that the company sees responsibilities beyond operating mining equipment. He added the foundation will support policy advocacy and research into emerging technical risks, including potential quantum-era threats.

The foundation launch follows several financial and operational changes at MARA. In March the company sold 15,133 Bitcoin for roughly $1.1 billion. Part of those proceeds was used to repurchase about $1 billion of convertible senior notes due in 2030 and 2031 at a discount, which the company said reduced its convertible debt by about 30%. MARA also announced workforce reductions that affected about 15% of employees.

MARA is expanding into data center and computing capacity beyond traditional mining. The company completed a majority acquisition of Exaion, a data center business previously owned by EDF, and signed an agreement with Starwood to convert up to one gigawatt of mining capacity to artificial-intelligence processing workloads.

On operations and market activity, MARA reported it operates about 66.45 exahashes per second, roughly 5% of the Bitcoin network’s total hashrate. Shares traded intraday as high as $11.60 before closing at $11.18 with no net change for the day; premarket trading later showed the stock at $10.94, down about 2.15%.

MARA said the foundation will be a vehicle to fund projects that support Bitcoin infrastructure while the company continues its mining and commercial activities.