MARA Q1 revenue drops 18%, says bitcoin mining remains 'operational foundation'

MARA shares fell more than 5% tin after-hours trading on Monday after the firm reported weaker first-quarter revenue while sharing more insight on its expansion into AI and digital infrastructure without abandoning bitcoin mining.

Revenue fell 18% year-over-year to $174.6 million in the first quarter, down from $213.9 million a year earlier, while net losses widened to $1.3 billion. This was primarily due to unrealized losses on the 38,689 bitcoins on its balance sheet.

While several of its bitcoin (BTC) miner peers have begun to pivot away from mining, MARA (MARA) emphasized that it still sees bitcoin mining as the "operational foundation" of the company — at least for the time being.

"Our strategy centers on co-locating new infrastructure with existing Bitcoin mining operations," management wrote in its shareholder letter. "This approach creates flexibility: we can generate revenue today through Bitcoin mining while preserving the option to redirect power toward AI and critical IT loads as those opportunities mature on the same sites."

The letter concluded with language similar to previous quarters, describing MARA as a "digital infrastructure company" focused on owning and monetizing power assets across AI, high-performance computing, and bitcoin mining.

Operational updates

MARA also signaled it plans to pump the brakes on large mining hardware expansions.

"Going forward, we do not expect to pursue large-scale ASIC purchases," the company said. "Our approach will remain selective, targeted, and grounded in clear economic return."

Much of the company’s AI strategy centers around its Starwood Capital partnership and acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power, a gas-fired power plant and data center campus in Ohio that MARA says could eventually support more than 600 MW of AI load.

Management said that around 90% of MARA's non-hosted mining capacity could be diverted into AI and IT infrastructure sites.

MARA expanded its energized hashrate 33% year over year to 72.2 EH/s and mined 2,247 BTC during the quarter, up from 2,011 BTC in the previous quarter.

Near the end of the quarter, MARA made the most significant reduction in its bitcoin holdings after selling roughly $1.1 billion worth of BTC to retire debt and "enhance financial flexibility." This caused MARA to fall from the second- to fourth-largest public bitcoin treasury company.