Bitcoin miners that are still drawing electricity from grid-attached power sources will struggle after the next halving event in 2028, MARA Holdings (MARA) said in a shareholder letter.
“For those miners still relying on grid-attached power, the writing is on the wall. Energy costs will only rise. The 2028 halving will likely force another industry-wide reckoning. Many may not survive,” the letter said.
The statement comes as the mining industry has already been struggling to stay profitable following a recent halving event that saw bitcoin rewards cut in half, forcing some miners to diversify their revenue sources into high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI).
Read more: AI Is Here, but That Doesn’t Mean Bitcoin Miners Are Finished: Blockspace
MARA, one of the largest bitcoin miners, said that in such a competitive market, miners would need to differentiate themselves or would risk falling behind and struggling to stay profitable. “Those that fail to differentiate will be relegated to being price takers in an increasingly competitive market.”
The miner’s solution, which it claims to have already taken an “early lead,” is to secure low-cost energy, vertically integrate their operations and expand beyond the traditional bitcoin mining business- alluding to the fact that miners need to cater to other computing needs such as AI and HPC.
“Our ability to acquire sites and generate low cost energy, activate depreciated hardware and energy assets, and run a vertically integrated model – from software and hardware, and now, to energy generation – will provide us greater control over costs.” To this end, MARA most recently bought a Texas wind farm that would lower the miner’s power costs.
MARA said it has also ramped up development and sales of data center infrastructure, which will become the base layer of infrastructure for any computing needs.
“Whether for bitcoin mining or AI inference, we believe our technologies will activate others to build while MARA provides the picks and shovels to deploy new systems and services, such as energy management, load balancing, and infrastructure,” MARA said.
The miner also reported its fourth-quarter earnings, where its sales of $214.4 million beat the average analyst estimate of $187.8 million, according to FactSet data. MARA stock rose more than 8% in the post-market trading, while bitcoin was down 4.2% on Wednesday.
Read more: Bitcoin Hashrate Growth Slows Amid Tough Market Conditions for Smaller Miners
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