New York, Feb 10, 2026, 08:04 EST — Premarket
Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings (MARA) slipped 2.3% to $8.06 ahead of the bell Tuesday, after Morgan Stanley initiated coverage at underweight, pegging the stock with an $8 target. The underweight call signals the bank sees MARA trailing other names it follows.
This call is important: investors are already picking through miners, separating those able to turn power and data centers into something more predictable from outfits still riding the next bitcoin move. That divide has started to show up in day-to-day price action, ahead of any fresh operating updates from the companies themselves.
Stephen Byrd and his team at Morgan Stanley see better value emerging among “bitcoin-to-data center” stocks, but still tagged MARA at underweight. Bitcoin made another push toward $70,000 Monday after lawmakers in Washington moved forward on a crypto market-structure bill, a development that sparked a quick jolt of risk appetite in parts of the sector. Investors
Morgan Stanley flagged MARA’s “hybrid” strategy, noting the company is sticking with hefty exposure to bitcoin price gains instead of focusing on leasing data centers to major hyperscalers—those big cloud players. According to the bank, it’s still the mining economics that set the tone for MARA’s stock. Investing.com
TeraWulf surged 16.5%, while Cipher Mining picked up 13.7% shortly after the open. The move sharpened the divide between miners investors see as possible data-center conversion plays and everyone else in the sector.
Bitcoin slipped 0.8% to around $68,476, erasing a slice of its earlier rebound and leaving miners’ revenue prospects hitched to the coin’s daily swings.
Riot Platforms climbed 3.6% at the open, a move that highlights just how fast sentiment can swing for U.S.-listed bitcoin miners when research notes or the bitcoin tape start shifting.
But this data-center shift won’t deliver instant relief. These deals are slow to close, power bills have a habit of spiking, and if bitcoin drops again—or network difficulty ratchets up—margins can get pinched long before miners manage to trim expenses.
There’s no new company news in play, so traders are essentially weighing two variables now: where bitcoin heads next, and if Wall Street keeps throwing money at miners’ power assets, treating them as a kind of infrastructure bet.
MARA’s own site doesn’t show any future events on its investor-relations calendar, so there’s no clear word yet on when the next quarterly update will land.
Now, focus turns to that report—still unconfirmed by the company—which MarketBeat pegs for Feb. 25. All eyes on whether other research desks circle back to the sector next.
