NEW YORK, January 2, 2026, 05:02 ET — Premarket
TeraWulf Inc (WULF) shares rose 2.9% to $11.49 in premarket trading, lifting off a previous close of $11.17.
The move puts the spotlight back on bitcoin-linked stocks at the start of 2026, after analysts argued the market is still struggling to price miners that are trying to become data-center operators.
That shift matters now because high-performance computing (HPC) — data centers that rent power, space and cooling for intensive workloads such as artificial intelligence — tends to offer longer-dated, contracted revenue than bitcoin mining. It also requires heavy upfront spending and tight execution.
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods analyst Bill Papanastasiou upgraded TeraWulf to Outperform from Market Perform and raised his price target to $24 from $9.50, a Benzinga report said.
Papanastasiou described the setup as a “compelling risk/reward asymmetry,” according to a summary of the research note. TechStock²
KBW said investors were underestimating the scale of TeraWulf’s planned mix shift from bitcoin mining to HPC leasing in 2026 and 2027. The firm said existing leases could drive 505% annual growth in EBITDA — earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a common cash-flow proxy — through 2027.
Bitcoin rose 1.8% to about $89,352, setting a firmer tone for crypto-exposed equities. Other U.S.-listed miners were mixed in early trading, with MARA Holdings down 3.6%, Riot Platforms off 0.4% and CleanSpark down 2.9%.
Macro catalysts sit close behind for risk assets. The U.S. employment report for December is scheduled for Jan. 9, while the Federal Reserve’s next policy meeting is set for Jan. 27-28.
TeraWulf has positioned itself as an operator of environmentally sustainable data-center infrastructure in the United States, built for bitcoin mining and for hosting HPC workloads, according to a company profile on Reuters.
The company’s investor relations calendar shows no upcoming events scheduled, leaving investors watching for the next catalyst through filings, project updates or a future earnings-date announcement.
For traders, the near-term test is whether the analyst call draws fresh buyers once regular trading begins, or whether the stock slips back into tracking bitcoin’s next move. Momentum and volume often dictate follow-through in miners, which tend to swing hard with risk appetite.
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