MARA Holdings fell 3.44% in after-hours trading to $12.93 after releasing its first-quarter 2026 results. The Bitcoin miner reported $174.6 million in revenue, down 18% from a year earlier and below analyst expectations of $192.7 million. Net loss widened to $1.3 billion, while loss per share came in at $3.31, worse than the expected $2.20.
Quarterly results missed Wall Street estimates
In its filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, MARA said revenue for the quarter ended March 31 declined from $213 million in the same period last year. Net loss also expanded sharply from $533.4 million a year ago to $1.3 billion. During regular trading, the stock had gained 3.48% and closed at $13.39, but that move was erased after the earnings release. Based on the closing price, MARA shares were down about 16% over the past 12 months.
Bitcoin treasury losses weighed heavily on the quarter
The company said the largest factor behind the quarterly loss was unrealized losses tied to its Bitcoin holdings. MARA held 38,689 BTC at the end of the quarter. Bitcoin fell about 23% in the first quarter of 2026, dropping from roughly $100,000 at the start of the year, which put substantial pressure on the miner’s balance sheet.
To address debt pressure, MARA sold more than 15,100 BTC in the final week of March, with a total value of about $1.1 billion. The proceeds were used to repurchase company debt at a discount. That move reduced financial pressure, while also showing how closely the company’s capital position is tied to the value of its Bitcoin reserves.
Mining pressure persists as MARA shifts toward AI and HPC
The broader mining sector is also facing weaker economics. The report noted that Bitcoin was trading near $82,000, about 35% below its 2025 all-time high of $126,080. At the same time, network mining difficulty increased by nearly 30% over the past year, squeezing returns per unit of hash power. MARA, once the world’s largest publicly valued Bitcoin miner, has now slipped to seventh place.
Against that backdrop, the company is leaning harder into AI and high-performance computing. MARA said Bitcoin mining remains its operating base, but future growth efforts will focus on converting mining infrastructure into AI data center capacity. Its current plans include working with Starwood Capital to redevelop mining sites for AI and HPC use, and the $1.5 billion acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power’s natural gas power plant and data center at the end of April. The facility can support up to 600 MW of AI compute capacity in the future. MARA also said about 90% of its non-hosted mining fleet could eventually be reassigned to AI and IT workloads, and it has no near-term plan to buy additional Bitcoin mining machines.