Crypto Miner MARA Holdings Posts $533M Q1 Loss Despite Record Bitcoin Holdings

On Thursday, Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings reported a staggering $533 million web loss for the primary quarter this yr, regardless of amassing Bitcoin at a file tempo and steadily rising its year-over-year income.

The corporate’s Q1 earnings reported a 30% bounce in income to $214 million, with its Bitcoin holdings ballooning to 47,531 BTC, a 174% enhance from simply 17,320 BTC a yr in the past.

Nonetheless, the corporate’s outcomes missed Wall Avenue’s expectations. Its web earnings loss expanded to $533 million (at $1.55 per share) from $337 million (from $1.26 per share) within the earlier yr.

“We’re a progress firm, however not at any value,” CEO Fred Thiel wrote in a letter to shareholders. “Our aim is not to chase an arbitrary [Exahash] quantity.”

The top end result? A significant hit to its backside line, regardless of roughly tripling its Bitcoin holdings.

On the identical time, its Bitcoin manufacturing dropped by 19% year-over-year to 2,286 BTC in Q1 2025, primarily because of the Bitcoin halving final yr that reduced mining rewards.

Nonetheless, MARA sees Bitcoin’s potential as “essentially the most optimum macro hedge in unsure environments,” Thiel mentioned. That is all of the extra vital as MARA seeks to remodel itself “right into a vertically built-in digital power and infrastructure firm,” he mentioned.

Decrypt reached out to MARA Holdings for additional remark.

Paper losses

MARA’s large quarterly loss stemmed primarily from a $510 million destructive adjustment on the honest worth of its Bitcoin holdings, because the alpha crypto’s value declined from $93,354 to $82,534 in the course of the quarter.

Crypto accounting standards authorised in 2023 have additionally modified how MARA stories its Bitcoin holdings.

As a substitute of utilizing the earlier cost-less-impairment mannequin, the corporate now measures its crypto property at honest market worth on the finish of every reporting interval, with adjustments flowing straight by its web earnings. Because of this, it created dramatic paper losses regardless of these being non-cash costs.

The corporate maintains a powerful liquidity place with $196 million in money and almost $4.1 billion in mixed money and digital property as of the tip of Q1, its consolidated balance sheet exhibits.

“We imagine that staying steadfast to our technique will, in time, result in larger worth creation for our shareholders,” Thiel wrote. 

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair