Odaily Planet Daily News Bitcoin mining company Marathon Digital recently sold $300 million in convertible notes to purchase 4,144 bitcoins, following MicroStrategy's strategy. This move reflects the plight of the mining industry: mining profits have dropped sharply and miners have to maintain operations through other means. Marathon recently announced on X that instead of buying more mining equipment, "given the current mining hash price, the internal rate of return (IRR) shows that it is more beneficial to shareholders to use funds from debt or equity issuance to purchase Bitcoin until the situation improves." "Hash price" is a measure of mining profitability. "Adopting a comprehensive HODL strategy reflects our confidence in the long-term value of Bitcoin," said Fred Thiel, chairman and CEO of Marathon, in a statement last month. "We believe that Bitcoin is the best treasury reserve asset in the world and support the idea of sovereign wealth funds holding Bitcoin. We encourage governments and companies to hold Bitcoin as a reserve asset." Shortly after the launch of the HODL strategy, the company announced the issuance of $300 million in bonds. Marathon currently owns more than 25,000 bitcoins, second only to MicroStrategy among publicly traded companies. "The advantage of convertible notes over traditional debt financing is that because convertible notes can be converted into equity, MARA will be able to obtain much lower interest rates than it would otherwise be able to," Blockware Intelligence said in a report. Being able to raise debt at low rates also helps Marathon reserve funds for potential acquisitions. "The bitcoin mining industry is in the early stages of consolidation, and the natural acquirers are those companies with larger balance sheets," said Ethan Vera, chief operating officer of Luxor Tech. "Adding a bitcoin balance sheet position allows the company to raise funds with a clear purpose of funds while preparing for potential mergers and acquisitions." Industry experts believe that as bitcoin mining profit margins decline and pressure on miners increases, debt financing may revive across the industry. Galaxy said: "We believe the industry is in a much better position now to take on some debt rather than relying solely on issuing equity for growth.(CoinDesk)