MARA (formerly Marathon Digital Holdings) reported a net loss of $611.3 million for the second quarter of 2026, a sharp reversal from a year-earlier profit, driven primarily by a decline in the fair value of its Bitcoin holdings. The loss came despite the company achieving its highest quarterly Bitcoin production in over a year.

Because MARA marks its Bitcoin treasury to market each quarter under fair value accounting rules adopted in 2025, the unrealized depreciation on its 35,577-Bitcoin balance flowed directly through the income statement, magnifying the impact of the quarter's price decline beyond its mining revenue alone.

According to MARA's 10-Q SEC filing, the net loss equated to $1.60 per diluted share, compared to net income of $808.2 million, or $1.84 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2025. MARA mined 2,422 Bitcoin during the quarter, a 3% increase year-over-year, but the higher output was more than offset by a 28% decline in the average Bitcoin price.

"Two things defined Q2 for MARA. Bitcoin prices created a challenging revenue environment [and] we used the quarter to fundamentally transform our power portfolio and capital structure," said MARA Chief Financial Officer Salman Khan during an earnings call on Thursday.

The results underscore MARA's ongoing exposure to Bitcoin price fluctuations even as the company broadens its mining capacity and pushes into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure. As of June 30, MARA held 35,577 Bitcoin with a total fair value of $2.1 billion, ranking it as the fourth-largest public Bitcoin holder behind Strategy, Twenty One Capital, and Metaplanet.

Strategic Push into AI and HPC

MARA has been moving aggressively to diversify its revenue base. The push comes as the Bitcoin mining industry grapples with compressed margins following the April 2024 halving, which cut the per-block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Several publicly traded miners, including Core Scientific, Hut 8, and Iris Energy, have pursued similar AI and HPC strategies, seeking to monetize powered infrastructure through higher-margin compute leases.

In February, the company acquired a majority stake in Exaion SaS, a firm that operates high-performance computing data centers alongside secure cloud and AI infrastructure.

Also in February, MARA announced a partnership with Starwood Capital Group and its data center development platform, Starwood Digital Ventures, to convert select MARA sites to serve "enterprise, hyperscale and AI customers."

MARA said it is targeting at least two AI/HPC lease signings by year-end. "Working alongside Starwood, we are progressing lease discussions across multiple sites, and we remain confident in our ability to sign at least 2 leases before year-end," MARA CEO Fred Thiel said on Thursday.

In July, MARA agreed to acquire a 1,200-acre powered land site in Matagorda County, Texas, with expected access to up to 2 gigawatts of grid capacity by April 2028. The company plans to develop the site for AI and HPC workloads in addition to Bitcoin mining. Large-scale power access has become a competitive differentiator across both mining and AI infrastructure, as grid interconnection queues and transmission constraints limit new supply.

MARA's expansion pipeline also includes its pending acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power in Ohio, a $1.5 billion transaction that MARA has said could eventually support up to 600 megawatts of AI and critical-IT load.

Bitcoin Mining Remains Core

In a letter to shareholders on Thursday, Thiel emphasized that Bitcoin mining continues to represent the foundation of MARA's business and will generate the cash flow needed to fund its broader investments.

"Ultimately, we do not view Bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure as competing businesses," Thiel said. "Our capital allocation philosophy remains straightforward. Every megawatt should be deployed into its highest-value application. In some markets, that will continue to be Bitcoin mining. In others, it will be AI infrastructure, sovereign cloud, or enterprise computing."