The largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner just reported its worst quarter in history, then watched its stock rally double digits before the earnings call ended.
MARA Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) posted a net loss of $1.71 billion in Q4 2025, a reversal from the $528.3 million net income it reported in the same quarter a year earlier. The loss per diluted share landed at $-4.52, missing analyst estimates of $-0.11 by a factor of forty. As of February 27, 2026, MARA shares are trading around $8.45, having climbed 17% in after-hours trading on the back of a strategic partnership announcement that reframes the company's entire future.
A $1.5 Billion Accounting Hit That Did Not Cost a Single Satoshi
The headline loss is almost entirely a paper event. Of the $1.71 billion, roughly $1.5 billion came from a negative change in the fair value of digital assets. Bitcoin dropped from approximately $114,300 on September 30 to $88,800 by December 31, and under the FASB's ASU 2023-08 fair value accounting standard (which MARA adopted early), every dollar of that decline hits the income statement in real time.
Before this rule, crypto holders used the old impairment model: write down when the price drops, but never write back up until you sell. The new FASB standard cuts both ways. It gave MARA a $528 million tailwind in Q4 2024 when BTC was rising. It gave MARA a $1.5 billion headwind when BTC fell 22% in a single quarter.
The result is a company that looks catastrophically unprofitable on paper while holding 53,822 BTC worth approximately $4.7 billion at current prices. Add $547 million in cash, and MARA's liquid position sits at roughly $5.3 billion, more than six times its current market capitalization.
The Operating Business Is Shrinking
Strip out the mark-to-market noise and the underlying mining operation still faces pressure. Q4 revenue fell 6% year-over-year to $202.3 million, down from $214.4 million, as the average price of bitcoin mined during the quarter declined 14%. Full-year revenue told a better story at $907.1 million, up 38% from $656.4 million in 2024, but that number was carried by higher average BTC prices across the first three quarters.
Production dropped. MARA mined 2,011 BTC in Q4, down 6% from the prior quarter, averaging 21.9 BTC per day versus 27.1 BTC per day in Q4 2024. For the full year, output fell to 8,799 BTC from 9,430 BTC in 2024. The April 2024 halving cut block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC, and rising global hashrate means each machine earns less every month.
The company ended 2025 with 66.4 exahashes per second of energized hashrate, but efficiency gains have not kept pace with the halving math. Mining economics are getting harder, and MARA is not the only one feeling it.
Starwood Deal: 2.5 Gigawatts and a New Revenue Line
Hours before the earnings release, MARA announced a strategic partnership with Starwood Capital Group's dedicated platform, Starwood Digital Ventures (SDV). The joint venture will convert select MARA mining sites into AI and hyperscale data centers, targeting 1 gigawatt of near-term IT capacity with a pathway beyond 2.5 gigawatts.
SDV will lead design, construction, tenant sourcing, and facility operations. Starwood will provide capital and project-level financing. MARA contributes its portfolio of power-rich sites, many of which already have grid connections, cooling infrastructure, and fiber access that AI tenants need.
CEO Fred Thiel framed Bitcoin mining as a gateway drug: "Bitcoin remains a core pillar of MARA's strategy," he wrote in a shareholder letter. But the company is now positioning itself as an "energy and digital infrastructure company," not just a miner.
The market's reaction was immediate. MARA shares jumped 17% in after-hours trading, completely overshadowing the $1.7 billion loss. Investors are pricing in the AI narrative, where data center capacity sells at premium multiples and carries predictable revenue streams that Bitcoin mining cannot match.
Every Major Miner Is Running the Same Playbook
MARA is not pivoting in isolation. The post-halving era has forced a reckoning across the entire mining sector:
- Hut 8 posted $279.7 million in Q4 losses while pursuing its own AI infrastructure build-out.
- American Bitcoin, the Trump family-backed miner, reported a $59.5 million Q4 loss and a 90% stock crash since its IPO.
- Bitfarms rebranded entirely to Keel Infrastructure, dropping its mining identity to chase AI data center contracts.
- Bitdeer, founded by Jihan Wu, sold every bitcoin on its balance sheet to fund AI chip development.
The pattern is clear: mine bitcoin, accumulate power contracts and real estate, then monetize the infrastructure for AI workloads that pay more per megawatt. Whether this is genuine strategic evolution or a sector-wide flight from deteriorating mining economics depends on which analyst you ask.
What MARA Shareholders Should Watch
Three numbers matter more than the headline loss.
Collateralized BTC exposure. Of MARA's 53,822 BTC, 15,315 are loaned or pledged as collateral. That is 28% of the treasury locked into counterparty arrangements. If BTC drops further and triggers margin calls, MARA could be forced to sell at unfavorable prices, the same dynamic that destroyed Celsius and BlockFi in 2022.
Starwood execution timeline. The 1 GW target is "near-term" but no specific date has been given. Data center buildouts typically take 18 to 36 months. Revenue from AI tenants will not materialize in 2026. Investors buying the AI thesis today are paying for 2027-2028 cash flows.
FASB volatility. Under the new fair value rules, MARA's quarterly earnings will swing wildly with BTC price. A strong Q1 rally could turn the $1.7 billion loss into a billion-dollar gain, making the income statement nearly useless as a measure of operational health. Shareholders should track hashrate, production costs per BTC, and the Starwood pipeline instead.
The FASB Paradox for Crypto Companies
The irony of the FASB fair value standard is that it was designed to give investors a clearer picture of crypto holdings. In practice, it has made quarterly earnings for BTC-heavy companies nearly impossible to interpret.
Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, faces the same dynamic with 717,722 BTC on its books. American Bitcoin and BitMine Immersion are also living with mark-to-market swings that dwarf their operating results. For crypto card users who hold BTC in custodial accounts, the same principle applies at the personal level: unrealized gains and losses are real for tax and accounting purposes, even if you never sell.
The question is whether Wall Street will learn to look past the FASB noise. MARA's 17% post-earnings rally suggests sophisticated investors already are. The $1.7 billion loss was the most predicted number on the call. The Starwood deal was not.
FAQ
How much Bitcoin does MARA hold? MARA holds 53,822 BTC, worth approximately $4.7 billion at current prices. Of that total, 15,315 BTC are loaned or pledged as collateral.
Why did MARA report such a large loss? The $1.71 billion Q4 loss is driven almost entirely by a $1.5 billion non-cash write-down under FASB fair value accounting rules. Bitcoin fell from roughly $114,300 to $88,800 during Q4, and the new standard requires companies to mark their crypto holdings to market every quarter.
What is the Starwood partnership? MARA partnered with Starwood Capital Group's Starwood Digital Ventures to convert mining sites into AI and hyperscale data centers. The initial target is 1 gigawatt of IT capacity, with plans to scale beyond 2.5 gigawatts.
Did MARA's stock go up or down after earnings? Despite the $1.7 billion loss, MARA shares jumped 17% in after-hours trading, driven by the Starwood AI partnership announcement.
Overview
MARA Holdings posted a $1.71 billion Q4 2025 net loss, its worst quarter on record, after FASB fair value accounting forced a $1.5 billion markdown on its 53,822 BTC treasury. Revenue fell 6% to $202.3 million and mining output declined to 21.9 BTC per day. But the headline was the Starwood Digital Ventures partnership, which will convert MARA mining sites into AI data centers targeting 2.5 GW of capacity. Shares rallied 17% on the AI pivot, joining Hut 8, Bitfarms (now Keel Infrastructure), and Bitdeer in a sector-wide migration from pure-play mining to AI infrastructure. The FASB standard that created the $1.7 billion paper loss is the same one that generated $528 million in paper gains a year earlier, making quarterly earnings for BTC-heavy companies increasingly difficult to interpret.
Recommended Reading
- American Bitcoin Posts a $59 Million Q4 Loss and a 90 Percent Stock Crash
- Strategy Is Now the Most Shorted Large-Cap Stock on Earth, With $4.85 Billion Betting Against Saylor's 717,722 BTC
- Bitdeer Sells Every Last Bitcoin as Jihan Wu Goes All In on AI Chips and Data Centers
