Author: Brayden Lindrea

Translation: Deep Tide TechFlow

Deep Tide Introduction: Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings has presented a shocking first-quarter report: revenue fell 18% year-on-year, net losses expanded from 530 million to 1.3 billion dollars, and after-hours stock prices erased the daytime gains. The bulk of the losses came from unrealized losses on BTC holdings. More importantly, MARA has clearly stated that it will no longer purchase new mining machines and is fully shifting towards AI data centers — the previously largest mining company's market value has dropped to seventh.

On Monday, MARA Holdings' after-hours stock price fell 3.44%, closing at 12.93 dollars, completely giving back the 3.48% increase during the day. The reason is simple: the first-quarter financial report fell short of expectations across the board.

Revenue and profit both miss

According to MARA's submitted financial report, the quarterly revenue as of March 31 was 174.6 million dollars, down 18% year-on-year, lower than Wall Street's expectation of 192.7 million dollars.

Net loss was 1.3 billion dollars, compared to a loss of 533.4 million dollars in the same period last year, widening nearly 1.5 times year-on-year. The loss per share was 3.31 dollars, significantly exceeding analysts' estimate of 2.20 dollars.

Figure Caption: MARA after-hours stock price trend, source: Google Finance

Where did the 1.3 billion loss come from

The main reason for the losses is the unrealized loss on MARA's holdings of 38,689 bitcoins. The price of bitcoin fell 23% in the first quarter, directly impacting the balance sheet.

MARA sold over 15,100 bitcoins during the last week of March, worth about 1.1 billion dollars, for the purpose of repurchasing debt at a discount.

Mining environment continues to deteriorate

MARA's predicament is not an isolated case. The entire U.S. bitcoin mining sector is sliding from profit to loss.

Two core pressures: bitcoin has fallen more than 35% from its historical high of 126,080 dollars, significantly reducing miners' income per block; at the same time, mining difficulty has increased by nearly 30% in the past year, with computing costs continuing to rise.

MARA's industry position is also declining. In terms of market value, it has dropped from the largest bitcoin mining company to seventh, with competitors moving faster in the AI transformation.

Fully shifting towards AI data centers

MARA stated that bitcoin mining is still the company's "operational foundation," but the actions are already very clear.

The company's AI strategy has two main lines: one is to collaborate with Starwood Capital to transform existing mining sites into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data centers; the second is to acquire Long Ridge Energy & Power for 1.5 billion dollars, a gas power plant and associated data center.

MARA's statement is:

"Our strategy is to place new infrastructure alongside existing bitcoin mining sites. The flexibility here allows us to generate income through mining today while retaining the option to divert electricity to AI and critical IT loads."

The acquisition of Long Ridge can ultimately support 600 MW of AI computing power, and approximately 90% of MARA's non-hosted mining capacity can be redeployed for AI and IT computing.

In summary, the determination for transformation is clear: the company has explicitly stated that it has no plans to purchase new mining machines in the future.