MARA CEO Fred Thiel says Bitcoin has missed its chance as a payment method

Fred Thiel, CEO of MARA Holdings, dropped a blunt assessment of Bitcoin’s future during an interview on July 23: its window as a viable payment method has closed. The head of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner by hashrate argues that volatility has permanently disqualified Bitcoin from the payments arena, leaving stablecoins to fill that gap. The payments ship has sailed Stablecoins, in Thiel’s view, are the obvious winner for high-volume, low-margin transactions. He specifically pointed to AI-related payments as a sector where stablecoins make more sense than Bitcoin. Thiel did flag what he considers a genuine weakness: Bitcoin generates no native yield for holders. You can’t stake it. It doesn’t pay dividends. He pegged Bitcoin’s fair value at roughly $90K, which is notable given that Bitcoin was trading at about $65K as of late July 2026. In English: the CEO of the world’s largest public miner thinks Bitcoin is currently undervalued by about 38%. From mining rigs to AI racks Thiel isn’t just philosophizing about Bitcoin’s role in the economy. He’s actively reshaping MARA’s business around the idea that pure Bitcoin mining isn’t enough anymore. The company is pivoting towa...