MARA Holdings (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK) reported heavy losses on August 6, extending a slump across public Bitcoin (BTC) miners as falling prices triggered large non-cash valuation losses.

Both firms leaned on their pivot toward artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure, joining rivals TeraWulf, Core Scientific, and Cipher in betting that compute capacity can offset shrinking returns from Bitcoin production.

MARA Holdings and CleanSpark Report Quarterly Losses

MARA Holdings posted a second-quarter net loss of $611.3 million, or $1.60 per share. That reversed an $808.2 million profit a year earlier.

Revenue fell 27% to $174.9 million, missing forecasts. The company tied roughly $343 million of the loss to mark-to-market declines on its Bitcoin holdings.

CleanSpark reported fiscal third-quarter revenue of $138 million, down 30.5% year-over-year. Its net loss reached $239.8 million, against a profit last year.

Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) swung to negative $113 million. A fair-value loss on Bitcoin of over $116 million added to the decline.

Combined, MARA and CleanSpark booked $851.1 million in net losses for the quarter, with Bitcoin fair-value markdowns accounting for roughly $459 million of that.

The results mirror an earlier quarterly loss at both miners. Rival Hut 8 followed the same pattern days before.

Meanwhile, both stocks fell during Thursday’s regular session. MARA was down 5.25% to $10.65, and CleanSpark dipped 5.56% to $12.75, according to Google Finance. 

The miners released results after the close. In after-hours trading, MARA edged up 0.38% to $10.69, and CleanSpark climbed 2.75% to $13.10.

Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens

AI Infrastructure Deals Anchor the Pivot

The losses have not slowed the sector’s race into AI. CleanSpark signed a 20-year lease valued at $6.6 billion at Sandersville. The deal includes a high-investment-grade tenant and adds long-term cash flow.

MARA framed mining and AI as two uses of the same resource. The company runs 19 data centers and holds rights to a 2-gigawatt (GW) site in Texas.

“Ultimately, we do not view Bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure as competing businesses. They are complementary applications of the same underlying asset: power,” MARA Chairman and CEO, Fred Thiel said.

Other miners have also leaned into leasing. TeraWulf’s (WULF) high-performance computing (HPC) rentals made up 71% of its $44.8 million in revenue. Its 20-year Anthropic lease represents about $19 billion in contracted revenue.

Core Scientific (CORZ) posted a $1.155 billion loss on $164.2 million in revenue. It unveiled an AMD deal covering up to 2.5 GW of capacity.

Most of the revenue lands years out. Whether AI leasing can cover shrinking mining returns will define the coming quarters.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel to watch leaders and journalists provide expert insights

Source: BeInCrypto