Las Vegas — MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel introduced the MARA Foundation at the Bitcoin Conference on Monday, positioning it as a long-term initiative to reinforce the resilience of the bitcoin network beyond the company’s mining and AI businesses.
“Bitcoin is the most important decentralized system ever created, but its future is not guaranteed,” Thiel said, underscoring the need for active participation across the ecosystem. He characterized bitcoin as “a public utility that nobody owns, but everybody depends on,” adding that decentralization distributes responsibility rather than eliminating it.
The foundation will center on safeguarding bitcoin’s role as sound, durable money while promoting its open and global accessibility. Its priorities include strengthening the network’s security budget—particularly through the evolution of a sustainable transaction-fee market—and supporting research into emerging risks like quantum computing.
MARA plans to back open-source development across scaling solutions, mining technologies, and user infrastructure, while also expanding access to self-custody and advancing financial sovereignty worldwide.
Education and policy outreach will be key components, including technical training programs, multilingual resources, and engagement with regulators.
To mark the launch, MARA will allocate $100,000 to one of three nonprofit organizations, with the recipient chosen by community vote, reinforcing Thiel’s call for shared responsibility across the bitcoin ecosystem.
