New York, May 22, 2026, 15:03 (EDT)
- MARA hovered close to $14 Friday, moving ahead even as bitcoin slipped.
- Wall Street climbed broadly before the Memorial Day weekend as the move took place.
- Investors are still looking at MARA’s move away from just bitcoin mining and into AI and high-performance computing using its power assets.
MARA Holdings gained Friday, with shares climbing to nearly $14 as the stock moved up even as bitcoin lost ground. MARA was last up 3.25% at $13.99, according to Barchart. Bitcoin dropped about 1.6% to around $76,450.
Timing is in focus. MARA was mostly seen as a bitcoin miner, a company using computers to handle bitcoin transactions and collect new coins and fees. Now it’s pushing investors to also see it as a power and data-center business.
Wall Street stocks finished higher on Friday, with the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq all up. Reuters said investors found a risk-friendly backdrop ahead of a U.S. market closure for Memorial Day on Monday.
No fresh company news sparked the move. The stock’s latest action took shape as MARA continues its recent push to spin energy assets, mining sites, and its bitcoin into a broader AI and high-performance computing play. High-performance computing, or HPC, means large-scale computing for heavy workloads like artificial intelligence.
MARA said in its Q1 shareholder letter that revenue dropped 18% to $174.6 million from a year ago, with the company mining 2,247 bitcoin in the quarter. Net loss came in at $1.3 billion, including a $1.0 billion fair-value loss on digital assets as bitcoin prices fell.
MARA has been working to change that. In April, the company said it would buy Long Ridge Energy & Power for $1.5 billion including debt, gaining a gas plant in Ohio plus more than 1,600 acres tagged for a data-center campus. CEO Fred Thiel told Reuters the location has “all the key components” for that plan. Reuters
MARA gave its latest update on May 15, saying it now has the needed consents from holders of Long Ridge’s 8.750% senior secured notes. The company says the transaction could close as early as the third quarter but still needs sign-off from regulators like the Hart-Scott-Rodino process and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
MARA tapped its bitcoin reserves earlier this year. In March, the company sold 15,133 bitcoin for roughly $1.1 billion, saying it would use the money to buy back convertible notes. CEO Fred Thiel called the move “a strategic capital allocation move” aimed at shoring up the balance sheet and supporting long-term growth. MARA
Peer action was mixed, with Riot Platforms up 1.27% to $24.78 and CleanSpark ahead 3.55% at $16.32, Barchart data showed. Riot, which is also moving into data centers, said last month AMD took up an option for an extra 25 megawatts, bringing total contracted to 50 megawatts. Barchart.com Barchart.com
MARA shares still carry clear risk. The stock often acts like a leveraged bitcoin play, and first-quarter results showed how much digital-asset swings can hit the business. The plan to use power relies on closing Long Ridge, finding tenants and turning those megawatts into steady revenue. Delays in approvals, a dip in bitcoin, or AI tenants pushing harder on prices could take back Friday’s gains in a hurry.
