Bitcoin miner MARA sold $1.5 billion of bitcoin as it shifts toward AI infrastructure

While the miner said bitcoin remains its operational foundation, first-quarter results point to a company increasingly built around power, data centers and AI demand.

What to know:

• MARA Holdings' first-quarter revenue fell 18% to $174.6 million, while a $1.3 billion net loss was driven largely by unrealized losses on its bitcoin holdings.
• The company sold about $1.5 billion of bitcoin, including $1.1 billion near quarter-end to repurchase convertible notes, and fell from the second- to the fourth-largest public bitcoin treasury holder.
• While Marathon continues to mine bitcoin, it is signaling a strategic pivot toward using its power infrastructure for AI and high-performance computing, supported by deals such as its planned $1.5 billion acquisition of the Long Ridge Energy & Power campus in Ohio.

MARA Holdings (MARA) is still producing bitcoin BTC$80,984.66, but it is getting harder to argue that mining is its core business.

In its first-quarter earnings statement, the company said it does not expect to make large-scale purchases of the specialist ASIC machines used in the process. Historically, big purchases have been the easiest way to read a miner’s growth plans. Less appetite for new machines means less emphasis on expanding pure mining capacity.

Instead, its power strategy is increasingly aimed at AI and high-performance computing. The company wants to place new infrastructure alongside existing mining operations, allowing it to generate bitcoin revenue while keeping the option to redirect power toward AI and critical IT loads as demand matures.

Around 90% of MARA’s non-hosted mining capacity could eventually be used for AI and IT infrastructure, the company said.

First-quarter revenue fell 18% from a year earlier to $174.6 million, the company said Monday. Its net loss widened to $1.3 billion, largely tied to unrealized losses on its 38,689 bitcoin. The largest cryptocurrency fell 17% in the 12-month period.

MARA said it sold $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin during the quarter to improve liquidity and retire debt. That includes a $1.1 billion sale near quarter-end to fund a convertible note repurchase. As a result, MARA dropped two places to become the fourth-largest publicly traded holder of bitcoin, according to Bitcoin Treasuries data cited in the filing notes.

Public miners spent much of the last cycle being valued partly on how much bitcoin they could mine and keep. MARA is now showing a different priority, using bitcoin as balance-sheet ammunition when needed.

The strategy shift is already backed by deals. MARA has a partnership with Starwood Capital and agreed to buy Long Ridge Energy & Power, a gas-fired power plant and data center campus in Ohio, in a $1.5 billion transaction. The company says the site could eventually support more than 600 megawatts of AI load.

Mining did grow in the quarter. Energized hashrate rose 33% year over year to 72.2 exahash per second, and MARA mined 2,247 bitcoin, up from 2,011 in the previous quarter.

While bitcoin mining clearly remains useful to the company, it just may no longer be its core business.

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