Key Takeaways
- MARA’s Q2 revenue fell 27% to $174.9 million, missing Wall Street estimates by more than 16%.
- Riot Platforms and MARA sent a combined 581 BTC, worth about $37 million, to custodian NYDIG.
- MARA’s hashrate climbed 22% to 70.3 EH/s as the miner leans harder into AI infrastructure.
A Rough Quarter by the Numbers
MARA Holdings, the largest publicly traded bitcoin miner, reported second-quarter 2026 results this week that badly missed Wall Street expectations. The company posted a net loss of $611 million, or $1.60 per share, a sharp reversal from the $808 million profit it recorded in the same period last year, and far below the $0.35 per share profit analysts had forecast. Revenue fell 27% year-over-year to $174.9 million, missing consensus estimates of $208.4 million by more than 16%.
About $343 million of the net loss came from unrealized mark-to-market changes on MARA’s digital asset holdings, an accounting effect of bitcoin’s price swings rather than a sign of weaker mining operations. Bitcoin production actually rose 3% year-over-year to 2,422 BTC, but a 28% decline in the average bitcoin price during the quarter more than offset the gain. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) came in at negative $361 million, compared with a positive $1.2 billion a year earlier.
MARA’s total bitcoin holdings fell 29% year-over-year to 35,577 BTC, down from 49,951 BTC. Of that stash, 26,307 BTC remains unrestricted, while 4,742 BTC is loaned out and 4,528 BTC is pledged as collateral, a sign the miner has been actively deploying its treasury rather than simply sitting on it.
Miners Keep Sending Bitcoin to NYDIG
The earnings miss landed in the same window as fresh onchain activity. MARA deposited 200 BTC, worth about $12.9 million, into institutional custodian NYDIG, while Riot Platforms, the second-largest U.S.-listed miner, sent another 381 BTC, worth about $24.5 million, to the same custodian (a combined 581 BTC moved in a single day).
Analysts commonly read miner deposits into NYDIG as a precursor to selling, since the custodian offers liquidity services that let large holders offload bitcoin without moving markets directly on exchanges. Unlike an exchange deposit, a transfer into custody does not guarantee a sale is imminent, but the pattern has historically preceded disclosed selling from both companies within days or weeks.
It is not the first time Riot has made this move, given that Bitcoin.com News reported in July that Riot offloaded another 500 BTC to NYDIG in a similar transfer, which seemed to be part of a pattern the company has repeated as it works to fund its own shift toward AI-driven data centers.
Together, the two miners’ latest transfers suggest the sell-side pressure that has weighed on both companies’ stock is unlikely to ease in the near term, even as bitcoin’s price has stabilized somewhat from earlier lows in the quarter.
A Miner Reinventing Itself
MARA’s results reflect a broader transformation underway across the bitcoin mining sector, where falling margins on pure hashrate output have pushed publicly traded miners toward diversified revenue streams. The company’s cost per petahash per day improved 4% to $27.7, and its energized hashrate rose 22% year-over-year to 70.3 exahash per second (EH/s) (a unit measuring the computing power dedicated to securing the Bitcoin network).
Management’s presentation to investors leaned heavily on MARA’s pivot toward digital infrastructure and AI-adjacent services intended to generate revenue less tied to bitcoin’s price swings.
The strategic shift follows a bruising stretch for MARA as the company previously cut 15% of its staff as part of the same transformation, suggesting the firm is restructuring for a future where hosting and compute services matter as much as block rewards. Rival Riot Platforms has pursued a similar playbook, increasingly posturing itself as a power and data infrastructure company that happens to mine bitcoin rather than a pure-play miner.
Uncertainity Ahead
With bitcoin’s average price down sharply from a year ago and mining economics tightening across the sector, MARA’s Q2 report has once again brought to light the pressure facing even the largest publicly traded miners. Whether the NYDIG deposits from MARA and Riot convert into actual sales should become clearer in the coming weeks, as will whether MARA’s infrastructure pivot can offset the volatility that comes with holding tens of thousands of bitcoin on a public company’s balance sheet.
