According to data from TheMiningMag, publicly traded U.S. cryptocurrency mining companies doubled their Bitcoin (BTC) holdings last year, holding a total of 92,473 (worth $8.6 billion) as of the end of December, with the price of the largest cryptocurrency at It rose 120%.
The largest amount, almost half of the total, is held by MARA Holdings (MARA) with 44,893 BTC. MARA has the second-largest holdings among publicly traded companies, surpassing MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) 450,000 BTC.
The HODL strategy of investing in Bitcoin and holding it for the long term has become popular over the past 12 months, following a typo that occurred more than a decade ago.
Three other miners hold more than 10,000 BTC, according to Bitcoin Treasury. Riot Platforms (RIOT) holds 17,722 BTC, Hut 8 (HUT) holds 10,171 BTC, and CleanSpark (CLSK) holds 10,097 BTC.
Not all miners subscribe to the HODL playbook. IREN (IREN), TeraWulf (WULF), and Core Scientific (CORZ) all hold little to no Bitcoin. The competitive nature of their business has led these companies to pivot to the artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) industries.
The stock price does not match Bitcoin’s trajectory. In general, miners have underperformed compared to Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency-related stocks such as MicroStrategy. Outperformers Core Scientific and Terawulf achieved returns of over 300% by focusing on new AI.
However, this year saw major gains for HODL Bitcoin miners, with RIOT, HUT, and CLSK all outperforming Bitcoin. Only Bitdeer (BTDR) posted negative returns after a strong performance in 2024.