MARA Holdings Inc. (MARA), the world's largest publicly traded Bitcoin miner by hashrate, is having a seriously rough time. The stock has cratered into oversold territory, with its momentum score plunging to the bottom 10th percentile of all stocks tracked by market data providers.
Understanding the Momentum Collapse
Momentum rankings track relative price strength and volatility across different timeframes, essentially measuring how well a stock is performing compared to everything else out there. For MARA, that metric reflects a week-over-week collapse that's happened alongside Bitcoin's sharp correction from its recent highs above $126,000.
As of publication, Bitcoin was trading at $87,471.66 per coin, up 1.34% on the day but down a staggering 30.7% from its all-time high reached on October 7. When Bitcoin sneezes, Bitcoin miners catch pneumonia, and MARA is no exception.
The Damage in Numbers
The stock performance tells a brutal story. MARA shares have plummeted 42.69% over the last month alone and 31.81% over the past six months. Zoom out further and things look even worse: down 34.86% year-to-date and 57.57% over the past year. The stock was down another 1.61% in premarket trading Tuesday.
Here's the kicker: MARA currently holds 52,850 BTC in its treasury, worth roughly $4.67 billion at current prices. That's a lot of exposure to crypto volatility, and the market is clearly nervous about it.
Beyond the momentum score, MARA has maintained weaker price trends across short, medium, and long-term timeframes, though it does show a solid growth ranking in some metrics.
Mixed Quarterly Results
The third quarter delivered a mixed bag of results. Revenue jumped 92% to $252 million, and net income flipped positive to $123 million, which sounds great on paper. But here's the catch: quarterly earnings came in at 27 cents per share, missing the consensus estimate of 44 cents by a whopping 38.22%. That's the kind of miss that makes investors jumpy, especially when your primary asset is down 30% from its peak.
MARA's treasury-heavy strategy, which involves holding massive amounts of Bitcoin rather than selling it immediately, leaves the company particularly vulnerable to crypto price swings. When Bitcoin rallies, this strategy looks genius. When Bitcoin corrects, well, you get what we're seeing now.
Electrons Are the New Oil
CEO Fred Thiel used the earnings call to zoom out and talk big picture about energy and the digital economy. His take is pretty interesting, even if the timing is awkward given the stock's performance.
"We believe electrons are the new oil, and energy is becoming the defining resource of the digital economy. Just as oil fueled the industrial age, electricity now powers the digital one, and those who control abundant, low-cost energy hold the key to generating both value and intelligence," Thiel said in a letter to shareholders. "From Bitcoin mining to artificial intelligence (AI), every digital system requires energy to create economic output."
It's a compelling vision: position MARA not just as a Bitcoin miner but as an energy-leveraged play on the entire digital economy, including AI infrastructure. Whether investors buy that story during a crypto winter remains to be seen.