Bitcoin missed its payment opportunity, says MARA CEO

Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Holdings, contends that Bitcoin has lost the race to become an everyday payment method. Speaking in an interview, Thiel argued that Bitcoin's original purpose as digital money no longer fits market realities, as businesses processing high transaction volumes cannot tolerate price volatility—even small fluctuations reduce profit margins when transaction costs are already tight.

Thiel pointed out that Satoshi Nakamoto's original design intended Bitcoin as a currency, but the market has evolved. Stablecoins, he suggested, now serve the payments function better by offering the price stability that two parties need when exchanging value. He expects cryptocurrency payments—particularly those tied to artificial intelligence applications—will increasingly depend on stablecoins rather than Bitcoin.

Marathon itself is rebalancing its strategy away from pure mining. The company is directing more computing capacity toward AI data centers, which the article reports generate higher returns than Bitcoin mining. To fund this shift, Marathon sold around 20,000 BTC over the past year to pay down nearly $1 billion in convertible debt. The company still holds 36,303 BTC, placing it among the largest corporate Bitcoin holders.