Las Vegas — MARA Holdings CEO Fred Thiel on Monday announced the creation of the MARA Foundation at the Bitcoin Conference, unveiling a new effort aimed at supporting the long-term stability of the bitcoin network beyond the company’s core mining and AI operations.
“Bitcoin is the most important decentralized system ever created, but its future is not guaranteed,” Thiel said, highlighting the need for continued stewardship. He described the network as “a public utility that nobody owns, but everybody depends on,” noting that decentralization spreads responsibility across its participants.
The foundation will work to preserve bitcoin’s defining characteristics as sound, durable money while promoting its open and global adoption. Among its key priorities are strengthening the network’s security budget—particularly by advancing a sustainable transaction-fee market—and funding research into emerging threats such as quantum computing.
MARA also intends to support open-source development across scaling, mining, and user infrastructure, while expanding access to self-custody and promoting financial sovereignty worldwide.
Education and policy engagement will be central to the initiative, with plans that include technical training, multilingual resources, and outreach to regulators.
As part of the launch, MARA will award $100,000 to one of three nonprofit organizations, with the recipient selected through a community vote—reflecting Thiel’s emphasis on shared responsibility within the bitcoin ecosystem.
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