Bitcoin has risen nearly 30% over the past two months, from a February low near $62,000 to about $80,621 by May 12, thanks to renewed interest in assets seen as resistant to the currency’s decline.
The march revived an old debate. Can Bitcoin actually behave like gold during periods of financial stress, or is it still essentially a speculative trade?
The contradiction now exists within the Bitcoin treasury group itself. The largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner is selling on the rise rather than accumulating.
What MARA’s earnings revealed
MARA Holdings sold 20,880 bitcoin worth $1.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026 to pay down debt and fund its AI infrastructure pivot, according to its May 12 earnings release.
The company used $1 billion of the proceeds to retire approximately 30% of its convertible debt, reducing liabilities from $3.3 billion to $2.3 billion.
MARA fell from second to fourth place in overall Bitcoin holdings and reported a net loss of $1.26 billion.
Proceeds fund MARA’s largest acquisition: a $1.5 billion deal for the Long Ridge Energy & Power campus in Ohio, including a 505-megawatt gas-fired plant and 1,600 acres for artificial intelligence data center development.
The company expects to repurpose up to 90% of its mining capacity for AI workloads. During the earnings call, CFO Salman Khan said:
Bitcoin is not just a reserve asset on our balance sheet; It is also a source of strategic financial flexibility.
As mentioned by Cryptopolitan On May 9, MARA’s Long Ridge deal was signed alongside similar pivots from IREN and DMG.
Publicly listed miners collectively sold more than 32,000 bitcoins in the first quarter of 2026, exceeding total miner sales for the entire year of 2025.
What JPMorgan says about undervaluation trading
JPMorgan analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirzoglou said bitcoin ETFs recorded inflows for three straight months through May, while gold ETFs are still struggling to recover from outflows that followed the Iran conflict in March.
Cluster mentioned The bank believes that “Bitcoin is rising at the expense of gold.”
Ray Dalio reiterated the broader thesis in an interview with Forbes last week:
When we look at history, we see that in all these periods, all fiat currencies decline. And gold is rising. I don’t think any of the fiat currencies would be an effective store of wealth.
This framework establishes what JPMorgan calls a “drip trade,” where investors move capital into scarce assets as fiat currencies weaken over time. The backdrop is approximately $39 trillion in US federal debt.
Split within the Treasury Regiment
The strategy has added 145,834 BTC year to date, and could buy $30 billion worth of BTC in 2026 at the current pace, according to JP Morgan.
The company now owns 818,334 Bitcoin worth more than $65 billion. MARA held 35,303 BTC after the quarter, worth about $2.84 billion, and is no longer adding to it.
This difference embodies a real strategic disagreement. The strategy treats Bitcoin as a game of generational accumulation against monetary decline. MARA treats it as balance sheet ammunition, turning mining capacity into AI-powered energy infrastructure for tenants who will pay in dollars.
For its part, Goldman Sachs raised its year-end gold target to $5,400 per ounce, citing lower long-term volatility and central bank demand.
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