Relying on Bitcoin's book profits to “reverse losses”: MARA (MARA.US)'s Q3 net profit was US$632 million, yet revenue plummeted 35% to a nine-quarter low

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Bitcoin mining company MARA Holdings (MARA.US) released financial results for the third quarter of 2026. This financial report shows a rare picture of division: book profits have skyrocketed and operating revenue continues to shrink — the company is at a critical point in the transformation from “mining Bitcoin” to “AI infrastructure.”

Revenue and profit present a “scissor gap”

Financial reports show that the company's revenue for the third quarter was US$164.2 million, down 35% from US$252.4 million in the same period last year, and about 7% lower than market expectations of US$176.1 million. The main reason for the decline in revenue was that the average price of bitcoins mined plummeted 37% year on year. This alone erased revenue of about 94.8 million US dollars; the average daily mining output rose slightly from 23.3 to 24.4, which only partially hedged price headwinds. So far, the company's revenue has declined for four consecutive quarters, and the current level is the lowest in nearly nine quarters.

In stark contrast to revenue is on the profit side: net profit for the quarter was US$632.1 million (US$1.28 per diluted share), far exceeding market expectations of a loss of $0.10 per share, and a significant increase from US$123.1 million in the same period last year. However, the composition of this profit is worth being wary of — it includes $885.3 million of unrealized fair value change earnings from Bitcoin holdings (US$343.1 million in the same period last year), which is a typical “paper profit”; after excluding this, the company's operating side is actually still in a state of loss. Adjusted EBITDA was US$857.7 million, compared to US$395.6 million in the same period last year.

Main mining business: efficiency is improving and revenue is shrinking. In terms of operating data, the company's hashrate (hashrate) increased 18% year over year to 71.2 EH/s, winning 644 blocks during the quarter (up 2% year over year). The cost of electricity was as low as 0.04 US dollars per kilowatt hour, and the daily cost per PH improved by 2% to 30.8 US dollars — mining efficiency continued to improve, but it was difficult to beat the revenue squeeze of falling currency prices. In the third quarter, the company mined 2,247 bitcoins and sold 3,891 bitcoins at an average price of 75,300 US dollars; as of September 30, the company held 3,4012 bitcoins and US$946.5 million in cash.

Sell coins to repay debts and go to battle lightly

The shareholders' letter revealed that after September 30, the company sold 13,597 bitcoins and cashed out about 1.1 billion US dollars, of which 750 million US dollars were used to fully repay term loans secured by bitcoins. The 17,477 bitcoins previously pledged were all unpledged. Currently, less than 5% of the holdings have been loaned or pledged. Following the sale of 15,133 bitcoins (about 1.1 billion US dollars) in March of this year to buy back convertible bonds, MARA is once again using “digital vaults” on a large scale. Meanwhile, the board approved a share repurchase mandate of up to $500 million. The company made it clear that it will continue to raise cash through the sale of bitcoins to invest in AI infrastructure and cope with next year's convertible bond resale obligations and potential repurchases.

AI transformation: One contract signed and two pending leases. In the third quarter, Exaion, a majority-owned subsidiary of the company, signed a four-year $79 million GPU computing power service contract with the first US customer, using 100% “take-or-pay” (take-or-pay) clauses; Exaion's total business reserves have exceeded $3 billion, of which about $1 billion is scheduled to be delivered by the end of 2027 — but the company admits that this portion of the reserve has not yet been signed and is not binding. A sign that has received more attention from the market is that the company admits that negotiations with potential data center tenants have entered an advanced stage, but the “target signing of two leases before the end of the year” schedule may slip into 2027 — management rarely took the initiative to lower expectations for the market. In addition, the acquisition of the Long Ridge natural gas power plant has been approved by FERC and is expected to be completed before the end of the year. The authorized output will increase from 485 MW to 505 MW of full nameplate production capacity in the first half of 2027.

The essence of MARA's earnings report is that a Bitcoin mining company accelerates “self-transformation” during the downward currency price cycle: while selling bitcoins in exchange for cash and repaying collateral debts, it is betting on electricity assets and AI computing power leases. The sharp increase in book profit comes from inflated positions under accounting standards, which does not indicate an improvement in operating cash flow; what really determines whether the transformation story can be established is whether the two data center leases can be implemented before the end of the year — if they fail, what the market awaits is not only a delay in the schedule, but a repricing of the transformation story itself.