Bitcoin Price 30% Dip Pushes MARA to $1.7 Billion Q4 Loss; AI Deal Ups MARA Stock

TLDR

• MARA posted a $1.7B Q4 net loss after a $1.5B bitcoin valuation markdown.

• Revenue declined 6% year over year to $202.3M in Q4 2025.

• Shares climbed over 15% following a Starwood AI joint venture.

• MARA held 53,822 BTC worth about $4.7B at year end.

A sharp 30% decline in Bitcoin price during the fourth quarter weighed heavily on MARA Holdings, leading to a $1.7 billion net loss. Even so, investor sentiment shifted quickly after the company unveiled a major joint venture with Starwood Capital Group focused on AI infrastructure, sending shares higher in post-market trading.

Bitcoin Valuation Shift Drives Earnings Reversal

For the fourth quarter, MARA reported revenue of $202.3 million, which represented a 6% decline from $214.4 million in the same period last year. While the revenue drop was modest, the more dramatic shift appeared in net income.

The company posted a net loss of $1.7 billion, compared with net income of $528.3 million one year earlier. This reversal was primarily attributed to a $1.5 billion negative change in the fair value of digital assets, reflecting Bitcoin’s roughly 30% decline during the quarter.

Because MARA holds a large Bitcoin treasury, fluctuations in market price directly affect reported earnings. Adjusted EBITDA totaled negative $1.49 billion, compared with positive $796 million in the prior year period.

Earnings per share came in at negative $4.52, falling short of analyst expectations. Revenue also missed forecasts, indicating that both market conditions and operational factors played a role in the quarter’s outcome.

Despite the quarterly setback, full-year revenue reached $907.1 million, up 38% from 2024. However, the company recorded a full-year net loss of $1.3 billion, compared with net income of $541 million in the previous year.

Operational Expansion Meets Rising Difficulty

While financial results were pressured by Bitcoin’s price movement, operational metrics showed continued infrastructure growth. MARA expanded its energized hashrate by 25% year over year to 66.4 EH per second.

However, higher network difficulty offset those gains. Bitcoin production declined to 2,011 BTC during the quarter, down from 2,144 BTC in the prior quarter, and total blocks won fell 15% year over year to 595.

At the same time, the purchased energy cost per Bitcoin rose to $48,611 from $31,608 a year earlier. The increase reflects a combination of higher energy expenses and the growing computational intensity of the network.

By year-end, MARA held 53,822 BTC, valued at approximately $4.7 billion at quarter-end prices. Of that total, 15,315 BTC were loaned or pledged as collateral, generating $32.1 million in interest income during 2025.

Combined cash and Bitcoin holdings totaled around $5.3 billion. Notably, the fourth quarter marked the first time since 2022 that MARA did not use its at-the-market equity program, avoiding shareholder dilution and instead relying partly on Bitcoin sales for funding.

Starwood AI Venture Reshapes Market Reaction

Alongside its earnings report, MARA announced a joint venture with Starwood Capital Group to develop hyperscale and AI-capable data centers across its power-rich sites. The project is expected to support roughly one gigawatt of near-term IT capacity, with potential expansion beyond 2.5 gigawatts over time.

Management framed the initiative as part of a broader transition from a pure-play Bitcoin miner toward an integrated energy and digital infrastructure company. Under this model, Bitcoin mining would serve as a flexible baseline workload, while higher-margin AI compute operations gradually scale.

This strategic pivot appeared to outweigh concerns about the quarterly loss. MARA stock climbed more than 15% in post-market trading and were up over 10% at publication time near $9.86.

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