NEW YORK, March 13, 2026, 1:35 PM EDT
MARA Holdings caught a nearly 9% jump Friday, leading gains among U.S.-listed crypto miners while bitcoin hovered around $71,645, having earlier spiked close to $73,897. The stock was trading near $9.55 early in the afternoon, off its session peak of $10.02.
Investors are now probing if MARA deserves a price tag beyond its status as a bitcoin stand-in. In its March 2 annual report, the company flagged 2026 as a year to push harder into a broader digital infrastructure strategy. Bitcoin mining remains the core, but management is also spotlighting AI and high-performance computing—think more data-center muscle for AI and other demanding workloads. MARA
Friday’s surge was notable, especially with the broader market heading the other way. U.S. stocks slipped amid concerns over sluggish growth, inflation, and the fallout from the Iran conflict. Riot Platforms managed a 0.4% gain, Hut 8 tacked on roughly 1.3%—neither came close to matching MARA’s action. Reuters
Bitcoin’s been on a rollercoaster since the U.S.-Israeli strike on Iran back on February 28, which sent the cryptocurrency tumbling to nearly $63,000. Jake Ostrovskis, who oversees over-the-counter trading at Wintermute, told the Wall Street Journal that climbing oil prices and nagging fears about slower growth are pushing some investors to see bitcoin as a possible winner if governments roll out more stimulus. The Wall Street Journal
On February 26, MARA revealed a new move for investors: a strategic partnership with Starwood Digital Ventures aimed at rolling out around 1 gigawatt of IT capacity in the near term, with an eventual target topping 2.5 gigawatts. The companies are focusing on sites rich in available power. Fred Thiel, MARA’s chairman and CEO, described these locations as providing “predictable access to energy at scale.” Starwood’s Barry Sternlicht called data centers the infrastructure “driving the modern economy.” MARA
On the same day, the company posted a tough Q4: revenue down 6% to $202.3 million, net loss deepening to $1.7 billion, or $4.52 per share. Adjusted EBITDA plunged to negative $1.5 billion, after lower bitcoin prices collided with higher energy bills. MARA finished 2025 holding 53,822 bitcoin, with plans to keep selling coins opportunistically through 2026 to shore up liquidity and cover capital needs. MARA
Analysts aren’t exactly rushing in. Clear Street’s Brian Dobson, for one, trimmed his price target on MARA to $9 from $16 earlier this month, saying his stance “remains mixed.” After the cut, Dobson assigned more weight to the HPC partnership than to the mining side of the business. Investing.com
MARA joins a broader contest here. According to Barron’s, analysts view the Starwood move as another sign of the larger trend nudging miners like TeraWulf and Hut 8 into AI-related infrastructure—a play for more dependable income streams as traditional bitcoin mining proves volatile. Barron’s
The rally, though, doesn’t always stick. MARA, in its annual report, put energy at the top of the cost stack for bitcoin mining—38.5% of owned mining revenue expected in 2025. The company flagged the Starwood partnership as carrying development, financing, and counterparty risks, and pointed out that building out AI and HPC could demand heavy capital and might not deliver as projected. MARA
