NEW YORK, Dec. 28, 2025, 5:23 a.m. ET — Market closed
Cipher Mining Inc. (NASDAQ: CIFR) heads into the weekend with investors juggling two competing narratives: short-term volatility tied to Bitcoin’s every wiggle, and a longer-term bet that Cipher’s fast-growing data-center pipeline and AI/HPC hosting ambitions can eventually smooth out the boom-and-bust profile that defines many crypto miners.
With U.S. stock markets closed Sunday, CIFR’s next real price discovery arrives when trading resumes Monday, Dec. 29, starting with premarket hours and then the regular session at 9:30 a.m. ET. Until then, the main “live” variable investors can watch is Bitcoin—because it trades 24/7, and miner equities often gap at the open to catch up.
Where Cipher Mining stock last left off
CIFR last closed Friday at $15.19, down about 6.35% on the day, after trading roughly between $15.18 and $16.25. [1]
After-hours trading later showed the stock around $15.11. [2]
The broader tape was hardly a fireworks show. A Reuters recap of Friday’s post-Christmas session described a quiet day with light volume and modest index moves as the market digested year-end positioning. [3] That “thin liquidity” backdrop matters for high-beta names like Cipher, where marginal flows can push big percentage swings.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin was recently quoted around $87,871, modestly higher on the day. For miner stocks, that Bitcoin relationship isn’t a polite correlation—it’s often the whole mood ring, especially when there’s no fresh company-specific catalyst.
The last 24–48 hours: downgrade headlines and a sentiment check
Even in a relatively calm holiday weekend, CIFR still picked up headline motion.
Wall Street Zen cuts its rating to “Sell”
MarketBeat reported Saturday that Wall Street Zen downgraded Cipher Mining from “Hold” to “Sell.” [4]
That’s a sentiment ding, but it’s not the whole Street. The same MarketBeat report emphasized that aggregated analyst positioning still leans bullish overall, describing a “Moderate Buy” consensus with a mid-$20s style price-target average. [5]
Translation: one downgrade can move weekend chatter, but the bigger story is the divergence between (1) near-term trading pressure and (2) a Street model that’s still underwriting substantial upside—often based on Cipher’s AI/HPC optionality rather than pure Bitcoin-mining economics.
Friday’s slide: a reminder that CIFR is still a high-volatility trade
A separate MarketBeat recap of Friday’s action highlighted a sharp intraday drop and noted that the stock is trading below its 50-day moving average while remaining above its 200-day moving average—classic “volatile, trend still debated” territory. [6]
Regardless of the precise technical framework, the practical takeaway is simple: CIFR can move a lot, fast—especially around thin holiday liquidity and crypto-driven sentiment shifts.
Insider sales: two directors filed Form 4s tied to Dec. 19 transactions
Investors scanning recent filings also saw insider-sale disclosures that remain part of the conversation heading into Monday.
Two separate SEC Form 4 filings show:
- Director James E. Newsome sold 21,821 shares at $16.03 on Dec. 19, 2025. [7]
- Director Wesley Hastie Williams sold 49,867 shares at $16.08 on Dec. 19, 2025. [8]
TipRanks’ weekend roundup flagged these as “heavier insider selling activity,” noting the combined dollar value was over $1 million. [9]
Important nuance (because the market loves drama more than spreadsheets): insider selling can reflect many non-operational reasons—tax planning, diversification, scheduled plans—while insider buying tends to be a stronger single-data-point signal. Still, in a momentum-sensitive stock, “insiders sold” can weigh on short-term sentiment even when it doesn’t change the long-term thesis.
The operating story that keeps CIFR on radars: power, sites, and AI/HPC hosting
To understand why analysts keep slapping mid-to-high price targets on a stock that can drop 6% in a day, you have to zoom out from “Bitcoin miner” to “power-and-land platform for compute.”
Ohio entry: “Ulysses” site adds PJM exposure (announced earlier this week)
On Dec. 23, Cipher announced it acquired a 200-megawatt site in Ohio called “Ulysses,” including 195 acres, secured capacity from AEP Ohio, and the interconnection/utility groundwork to participate in PJM. The company said the site is on track to energize in Q4 2027 and is positioned for high-performance computing (HPC) workloads. [10]
That matters because PJM is a different power market than Texas/ERCOT, and access to “time-to-power” inventory has become one of the defining bottlenecks in the AI data-center buildout.
A market commentary item circulating over the last two days pointed to this deal as strategically aligned with Cipher’s push beyond bitcoin mining toward HPC hosting, citing continued bullishness from at least one research view tied to the Ulysses announcement. [11]
The bigger pivot: AWS lease and multi-year contracted cash flow ambitions
Cipher’s most transformative strategic disclosures arrived with its third-quarter 2025 business update filed with the SEC in early November.
Among the highlights:
- Cipher disclosed an approximately $5.5 billion, 15-year lease with Amazon Web Services to provide space and power for AI workloads, with 300 MW expected to be delivered in 2026 (two phases beginning July 2026 and completing in Q4 2026; rent commencing August 2026). [12]
- CEO Tyler Page described Q3 as “truly transformative,” referencing AI/HPC credibility-building deals alongside the core mining business. [13]
- The same filing discussed a 1-gigawatt West Texas development project (“Colchis”) and broader pipeline positioning. [14]
This is the heart of the bull case: if Cipher can convert power, land, and interconnection into long-dated, creditworthy lease cash flows, investors may eventually value pieces of the company less like a pure crypto miner and more like an infrastructure platform.
Forecasts and analyst framing: why targets remain in the mid-$20s
In the near term, different services summarize Street expectations differently, but the center of gravity is clear: many analysts remain constructive.
- MarketBeat’s aggregation around the recent rating news described a consensus that still leans bullish, with a price-target average in the mid-$20s range. [15]
- Zacks also published a consensus-style view that pegs the average target in the mid-$20s, reflecting optimism tied to Cipher’s AI/data-center optionality alongside its mining business. [16]
What bulls generally argue (in plain English): bitcoin mining can fund and de-risk the infrastructure buildout; AI/HPC hosting can potentially provide more stable, contract-based economics later; and “time-to-power” sites are scarce. What skeptics argue: execution risk is enormous, timelines stretch into 2026–2028, and the stock still trades like a levered proxy on Bitcoin today.
Both can be true at the same time, which is why CIFR can attract long-term thematic investors and short-term traders… often in the same hour.
What investors should know before Monday’s session
Because the market is closed right now, the key question becomes: what could change before the opening bell that would cause CIFR to gap up or down?
1) Bitcoin can move while CIFR can’t
Bitcoin’s weekend moves often reprice miner stocks at the Monday open. With BTC recently around $87,871, traders will be watching whether crypto breaks out, sells off, or chops sideways into Sunday night futures.
2) Year-end market dynamics can amplify moves
Reuters highlighted the light, post-holiday feel of Friday’s session. Thin liquidity can exaggerate swings, especially in high-beta names. [17]
3) The coming week’s macro calendar is still a catalyst machine
Investopedia’s look ahead notes a holiday-shortened week due to New Year’s Day and flags upcoming data points (including pending home sales and jobless claims) plus the release of Federal Reserve minutes. [18]
Even if those aren’t “about” Cipher, macro risk-on/risk-off waves can hit Bitcoin-linked equities quickly.
4) Watch the “sentiment stack”: downgrade + insider sales + execution updates
Going into Monday, sentiment inputs are mixed:
- A fresh downgrade to “Sell” (bearish headline). [19]
- Documented insider sales (not automatically bearish for fundamentals, but can weigh on tape psychology). [20]
- A still-intact strategic pipeline narrative (AI/HPC hosting and site acquisitions) that many analysts continue to model positively. [21]
5) Practical price levels traders will obsess over
Without trying to turn this into a crystal-ball ritual, two numbers matter simply because they’re recent and real:
- Friday’s low near $15.18 (where buyers last showed up).
- The prior close around $16.22 earlier in the week, which has become a psychological reference point after the latest drop. [22]
If Bitcoin rallies into Monday, traders will ask whether CIFR can reclaim those levels quickly; if Bitcoin weakens, the market will test whether that ~$15 zone holds.
Bottom line
Cipher Mining stock enters Monday’s session with the classic miner setup: a volatile equity tethered to Bitcoin in the short run, but increasingly shaped by a longer-run AI/HPC infrastructure narrative. The last 48 hours added a sentiment hit via a downgrade and kept attention on insider-sale filings, while the company’s recent push into PJM via the Ohio “Ulysses” site and its disclosed AWS lease framework continue to anchor the multi-year growth story. [23]
References
1. www.nasdaq.com, 2. finance.yahoo.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. www.marketbeat.com, 5. www.marketbeat.com, 6. www.marketbeat.com, 7. www.sec.gov, 8. www.sec.gov, 9. www.tipranks.com, 10. www.globenewswire.com, 11. finviz.com, 12. www.sec.gov, 13. www.sec.gov, 14. www.sec.gov, 15. www.marketbeat.com, 16. www.zacks.com, 17. www.reuters.com, 18. www.investopedia.com, 19. www.marketbeat.com, 20. www.sec.gov, 21. www.globenewswire.com, 22. www.nasdaq.com, 23. www.marketbeat.com
