MARA sold 13,597 bitcoin for $1.1 billion after FERC cleared its $1.5 billion Long Ridge gas plant buy

MARA Holdings▲+3.41% — MARA Holdings, up 3.41 percent today, the bitcoin miner buying power plants, sold 13,597 bitcoin in the weeks after September 30↗, about 40% of one of the largest corporate stacks, for roughly $1.1 billion ¹². The coins went near $81,039 each; $750 million of the proceeds repaid every bitcoin-collateralized term loan and freed 17,477 coins held as collateral. ¹²

The coins are buying an Ohio gas plant

On November 4 the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission cleared MARA's roughly $1.5 billion purchase of Long Ridge Energy & Power↗, a 505 MW nameplate gas plant in Hannibal, Ohio, from FTAI Infrastructure ³⁴. The deal lifts MARA's owned generation capacity by more than 300%, the company says, and its November 9 shareholder letter expects the close in the coming weeks ¹⁴. On the earnings call, CFO Salman Khan put the roadmap beyond 4 GW of power. ⁵

Borrowed in coins at $64,000, repaid at $81,039

The funding loop is the point: MARA borrowed $750 million against bitcoin near $64,000 to fund the acquisition, then repaid it with coins sold near $81,039, a round trip the letter values at a $170 million net benefit ¹. The selling continues for AI infrastructure, for the puts on its convertible notes (holders can demand $924.1 million back in 2027), and for a $500 million buyback authorized after quarter-end. ¹⁸

Mining revenue is shrinking under the pivot

Third-quarter revenue fell 35% to $164.2 million↗, with $94.8 million of the drop from a 37% lower average bitcoin price ¹. The $632.1 million profit is mostly an $885.3 million unrealized gain on coins now being sold; the nine-month figure is a $1.24 billion loss. ¹

One signed contract against a $3 billion promise

The only signed compute contract is a four-year, $79 million take-or-pay GPU deal at Exaion, its majority-owned cloud unit, so the customer pays whether or not it uses the capacity ¹. The $3 billion pipeline is, in the letter's words, demand indications, not yet contracted or committed; the 2 GW Matagorda County, Texas site is still a studied load in Batch Zero, the review queue of ERCOT, Texas's grid operator, and no seller payments have been made. ¹

Riot signed what MARA has not

Rival bitcoin miner Riot Platforms▼−1.44% — Riot Platforms, down 1.44 percent today signed what MARA has not: a 15-year, 910 MW lease at Corsicana, Texas worth about $28 billion↗, with AnthropicPVT$350B — Anthropic, private, latest valuation $350B, the AI lab behind the Claude chatbot, named as tenant in its quarterly filing ⁶⁷. MARA targets two signings by year-end, though CEO Fred Thiel says timing could move into next year; hosting on about 29% of its capacity starts expiring in the third quarter of 2027, the year those note puts come due. ¹⁷⁸

Analysts split $11 to $20 on leases MARA has not signed

Compass Point kept its Buy at $20 on November 10↗, 172% above the $7.34 close and down from $30 a year ago; Rosenblatt and Piper Sandler sit at $11, with consensus at $18 ⁸. A Kearney signing by December 31 is the test Compass Point set ⁸. Until a lease is signed, the data center business the coins are funding has no tenant. ¹⁸