Bitcoin miners which are nonetheless drawing electrical energy from grid-attached energy sources will wrestle after the following halving occasion in 2028, MARA Holdings (MARA) mentioned in a shareholder letter.
“For these miners nonetheless counting on grid-attached energy, the writing is on the wall. Vitality prices will solely rise. The 2028 halving will possible pressure one other industry-wide reckoning. Many could not survive,” the letter mentioned.
The assertion comes because the mining {industry} has already been struggling to remain worthwhile following a latest halving occasion that noticed bitcoin rewards lower in half, forcing some miners to diversify their income sources into high-performance computing (HPC) and synthetic intelligence (AI).
Learn extra: AI Is Right here, however That Doesn’t Imply Bitcoin Miners Are Completed: Blockspace
MARA, one of many largest bitcoin miners, mentioned that in such a aggressive market, miners would wish to distinguish themselves or would threat falling behind and struggling to remain worthwhile. “Those who fail to distinguish will probably be relegated to being worth takers in an more and more aggressive market.”
The miner’s answer, which it claims to have already taken an “early lead,” is to safe low-cost vitality, vertically combine their operations and broaden past the standard bitcoin mining business- alluding to the truth that miners must cater to different computing wants resembling AI and HPC.
“Our skill to accumulate websites and generate low price vitality, activate depreciated {hardware} and vitality belongings, and run a vertically built-in mannequin – from software program and {hardware}, and now, to vitality technology – will present us higher management over prices.” To this finish, MARA most lately purchased a Texas wind farm that may decrease the miner’s energy prices.
MARA mentioned it has additionally ramped up improvement and gross sales of knowledge middle infrastructure, which can turn out to be the bottom layer of infrastructure for any computing wants.
“Whether or not for bitcoin mining or AI inference, we consider our applied sciences will activate others to construct whereas MARA gives the picks and shovels to deploy new methods and providers, resembling vitality administration, load balancing, and infrastructure,” MARA mentioned.
The miner additionally reported its fourth-quarter earnings, the place its gross sales of $214.4 million beat the common analyst estimate of $187.8 million, in keeping with FactSet information. MARA inventory rose greater than 8% within the post-market buying and selling, whereas bitcoin was down 4.2% on Wednesday.
Learn extra: Bitcoin Hashrate Development Slows Amid Robust Market Situations for Smaller Miners
