MARA Swings to $1.7B Q4 Loss on Bitcoin Markdown — Shares Jump 15% After Starwood AI JV
- Revenue: $202.3 million → Down 6% year-over-year from $214.4 million
- Net loss: $1.7 billion → vs. $528.3 million net income in Q4 2024
- Primary driver: $1.5 billion negative change in fair value of digital assets (Bitcoin price fell ~30% in the quarter)
- Adjusted EBITDA: –$1.49 billion → vs. positive $796 million a year earlier
- Bitcoin production: 2,011 BTC mined → Down from 2,144 BTC in Q3 2025
- Blocks won: 595 (–15% year-over-year)
- Cost per Bitcoin: $48,611 (up sharply from $31,608 a year earlier due to higher network difficulty)
Bitcoin Holdings & Capital Structure
- Year-end BTC holdings: 53,822 BTC → Valued at ~$4.7 billion at quarter-end prices
- Loaned or pledged: 15,315 BTC (~28% of holdings) → Generated $32.1 million in interest income for full-year 2025
- Total cash + Bitcoin: ~$5.3 billion
- No equity dilution in Q4 — first quarter since 2022 without using the ATM program
MARA remains the second-largest public corporate Bitcoin holder, behind MicroStrategy.
Major Announcement: Starwood Capital JV for AI Data Centers
Alongside earnings, MARA unveiled a joint venture with Starwood Capital Group to develop hyperscale and AI-capable data centers across its power-rich sites.
- Near-term IT capacity: ~1 GW
- Long-term potential: >2.5 GW
- Strategy: Use Bitcoin mining as a flexible baseline load while transitioning higher-value AI compute
CEO Fred Thiel framed this as a continuation of MARA’s shift from a pure-play Bitcoin miner to an integrated energy and digital infrastructure company.
Stock Reaction
- MARA shares surged more than 16% in post-market trading to $9.86 (as of late February 26, 2026)
- Despite the massive Q4 loss, the AI/HPC pivot and avoidance of equity dilution drove positive sentiment
Investor Takeaways
- Revenue growth stalled in Q4 due to weaker Bitcoin mining economics
- The $1.7B loss is largely non-cash (Bitcoin markdown) — not operational failure
- The Starwood JV provides long-term visibility into stable, high-margin AI/cloud revenue streams
- 28% of BTC loaned/pledged shows balance-sheet optimization (interest income + collateralized borrowing)
- Key metrics to watch in 2026:
- Ramp-up of AI data-center capacity and leasing revenue
- Bitcoin production vs. network difficulty
- Progress on the 2.5 GW long-term platform
The market is rewarding the AI pivot narrative despite near-term mining weakness — a pattern seen across other Bitcoin miners (e.g., TeraWulf, Iris Energy) making similar transitions.
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