MARA Holdings (MARA) Reaffirms Bitcoin (BTC) Mining as Core After 13,597 BTC Sale

Mining Back at the Core

Bitcoin (BTC) miners that spent the past two years courting AI datacenter contracts are pulling mining back to the center of their business. MARA Holdings (MARA) and Bitdeer both made the case for Bitcoin mining this week, with MARA telling shareholders in a letter published on November 9 that crypto mining remains its core activity, because existing power assets can keep generating revenue while new AI facilities are under construction. The repositioning lands as the Bitcoin price trades about 5.7% lower over the past 24 hours, tightening the cash flows behind both strategies. The pivot toward AI began after the 2024 halving cut block rewards under the proof-of-work system, compressing margins just as demand for AI compute surged. CoinShares tallies show listed miners announced more than $70 billion in AI and high-performance computing contracts between early 2025 and the start of 2026. The economics have proven harsher than those headline figures suggest. Converting an existing mining site to datacenter-grade standard costs $8 million to $15 million per megawatt, more than 20 times the $700,000 to $1 million needed for standard mining infrastructure. Local resistance has built as well: at least 225 measures restricting datacenter development have been recorded across 30 US states, 151 of them still in force. Investor patience has thinned in parallel, with shares of major converted miners falling an average of 35% in October, according to VanEck. Against that backdrop, mining functions as the funding engine. MARA's letter states the company sold 13,597 Bitcoin (BTC) after the third quarter ended, raising about $1.1 billion, of which $750 million went to repay bitcoin-backed loans, while it pursues the roughly $1.5 billion acquisition of the Long Ridge power business. Bitdeer mined 3,855 BTC in the third quarter, up 248% year over year, and its self-mining revenue of $217.5 million far exceeded AI cloud revenue of $20.4 million. Holding only 47 BTC at the end of September, the company cashes out its output rather than accumulating it.

Where the Full Converters Stand

The split inside the industry now runs between dual-track operators and full converters, and the two groups look increasingly different. Bitdeer is among the few listed miners still adding mining capacity, and its chief strategy officer Haris Basit said the company does not want to depend on any single market cycle; his stated goal is a platform that generates sustained cash flow from the power and technology assets Bitdeer controls. MARA chief executive Fred Thiel placed Bitcoin (BTC) mining at the center of the business in the same letter, consistent with the position he took in August. Bitdeer's third-quarter revenue totaled $320.7 million, with AI cloud contributing $20.4 million, roughly 6% of the total, and its AI pipeline carries roughly $7.6 billion of expected contracted revenue when a $2.9 billion AI cloud backlog is combined with $4.7 billion in datacenter lease agreements. The valuation gap opened even as multi-billion-dollar hosting deals accumulated, because capital spending ran well ahead of realized AI revenue and public resistance to datacenter construction kept growing. The full converters are already on the other side of the line: IREN booked $200 million of AI cloud revenue out of $228 million total for the quarter ended September, leaving mining at $28 million. Core Scientific drew roughly 92% of its September-quarter revenue from datacenter leasing, and TeraWulf about 83% from AI and high-performance computing rentals. The stress is visible where these stocks trade: an ETF that holds mining companies, WGMI, has fallen about 60% from its June peak, and some CoreWeave bonds now yield at junk-grade levels as investors question whether the massive spending on GPUs and datacenters can match returns. Looking ahead to the 2028 halving, Luxor's Lauren Lin, who leads the firm's hardware and software divisions, said it will squeeze operators without cheap power and efficient machines, adding that strong operators treat power as a product.

MARA Shares Press $7.06 Support

COINOTAG data shows MARA last at $7.08, down 5.60% over the past 24 hours within a $6.94 to $7.69 range, pressing directly on the $7.06 level our composite scores as the nearest support at 36 out of 100. The next meaningful floor sits at $6.83 with a moderate 55, while the strongest overhead resistance is the round-number cluster at $7.64, rated 81; the daily RSI reads 46.3 and the trend is sideways. The filings behind this week's headlines also show what the dual-track model means in practice: the companies calling mining core are net distributors of the asset, since MARA sold 13,597 BTC and Bitdeer holds almost none of its output. The renewed emphasis on mining is a funding mechanism for AI capital spending, not a holder's bet.