MARA Holdings' Bitcoin Holdings Soar to $4.9B Despite $533M Q1 Loss Amid Halving Impact

MARA Holdings—formerly Marathon Digital—announced in its latest Q1 results that it has nearly tripled its Bitcoin (BTC) holdings over the past year, reaching 47,531 BTC, valued at approximately $4.9 billion with Bitcoin’s price around $102,660. This makes MARA the public company with the second-largest Bitcoin stash, only behind MicroStrategy.

Despite amassing an unprecedented level of BTC and reporting a 30% year-over-year revenue growth to $214 million, MARA posted a $533 million net loss for Q1 2025—attributed mainly to fair value losses on its Bitcoin holdings, following new crypto accounting standards, as well as a 19% annual drop in mining output and a slight miss in revenue expectations.

MARA's challenges mirror those across the Bitcoin mining sector: other major miners like Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, and Hut8 also fell short of Q1 analyst revenue estimates. These setbacks are largely explained by higher operating costs and lower production following the 2024 Bitcoin halving, which reduced block rewards from 6.25 to 3.125 BTC per block.

While MARA stock experienced short-term volatility—jumping 7.2% on May 8 before retreating 2% after hours—the company remains focused on long-term growth. CEO Fred Thiel emphasized the strategy to evolve into a vertically integrated digital infrastructure and energy company, viewing Bitcoin as a key macro hedge. Despite steep paper losses, MARA retains strong liquidity, reporting $196 million in cash and $4.1 billion in combined cash and digital assets as of the end of Q1 2025.