NEW YORK, Jan 2, 2026, 08:49 ET — Premarket
- MARA shares fell 3.6% to $8.98 in premarket trading.
- Bitcoin rose about 1.8% to $89,393, while U.S.-listed miners traded softer.
- A recent SEC Form S-8 registered 33 million additional shares for MARA’s equity incentive plan.
Shares of MARA Holdings Inc (MARA.O) fell 3.6% to $8.98 in premarket trading on Friday, while bitcoin edged higher.
The move put the bitcoin miner on watch heading into the first full U.S. trading day of 2026 after the New Year’s Day holiday closure. Traders often use miners as a liquid proxy for crypto risk, meaning the stocks can swing harder than bitcoin itself.
Bitcoin was up about 1.8% at $89,393, stabilizing after a choppy end to 2025 that underscored how closely crypto has tracked broader risk appetite. 1
Investors have also been digesting share-supply news from MARA. In a Dec. 30 SEC filing, the company registered an additional 33 million shares for issuance under its amended 2018 equity incentive plan, bringing the total pool reserved for the plan to 63 million shares. 2
A Form S-8 is a registration statement companies use to offer shares under employee benefit plans. It does not mean shares are sold immediately, but it increases the amount that can be issued over time, which can dilute existing shareholders. 2
“In 2025, the market showed that bitcoin increasingly exhibits the characteristics of a risk asset,” said Linh Tran, a senior market analyst at XS.com, in a Dec. 31 Reuters report. 1
Other U.S.-listed bitcoin miners were also softer before the bell. Riot Platforms fell about 0.4% and CleanSpark slid about 2.9% in premarket trading.
The divergence between a firmer bitcoin tape and weaker miners can reflect equity-market positioning, funding costs and expectations for mining profitability, which depends on both the coin price and network conditions. Profitability can tighten when competition rises, because miners must expend more computing power for the same rewards.
Macro events are also back in focus after thin holiday trading. The next U.S. jobs report due Jan. 9 and consumer price index data due Jan. 13 are among the early catalysts investors are watching for signals on growth and rate expectations, Reuters reported. 3
MARA describes itself as a “digital asset compute” company whose core business is bitcoin mining, while also marketing data-center and cooling infrastructure tied to the bitcoin ecosystem and AI/high-performance computing. 4
For now, traders are watching whether bitcoin can hold near the $90,000 area and whether MARA can reclaim $9 as regular trading begins. Moves in bitcoin-linked equities often accelerate once cash-market volumes return after the open.
