Two of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies, Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) and CleanSpark (CLSK), reported significant revenue declines in their latest earnings, underscoring the financial pressures pushing miners toward artificial intelligence infrastructure pivots.
MARA Holdings posted revenue of 174.6 million dollars for the first quarter of 2026, an 18 percent year-over-year decline from the 213.9 million dollars generated in the same period last year. The company attributed the drop primarily to an 18 percent fall in the average price of Bitcoin during the quarter. MARA also recorded a net loss of approximately 1.26 billion dollars, though the majority of this figure stemmed from non-cash fair-value accounting losses on its Bitcoin treasury holdings.
CleanSpark’s results were even steeper. The company reported quarterly revenue of 136.4 million dollars, down 24.9 percent year-over-year. CleanSpark’s net loss nearly doubled to 378.3 million dollars, with approximately 224.1 million of that loss attributable to changes in the fair value of its Bitcoin holdings. Despite the financial pressure, CleanSpark continues to hold 13,453 BTC as reserves.
The revenue declines come as Bitcoin’s hash price, which measures mining revenue per unit of computing power, has dropped to record lows. Hash price fell below 32 dollars per petahash per second during a February weather event before recovering to approximately 41 dollars per petahash per second. Industry analysts note that 15 to 20 percent of the global mining fleet is now running cash-negative.
Both companies are accelerating their pivots toward AI and high-performance computing infrastructure. MARA sold 15,133 BTC for approximately 1.1 billion dollars in March and used the proceeds to repurchase convertible senior notes. The company then laid off 15 percent of its workforce as it shifted focus from Bitcoin mining to energy and AI compute services.
CleanSpark signed a massive 20-year triple-net infrastructure lease agreement in July, expected to generate 6.6 billion dollars in revenue. CEO Matt Schultz has positioned the company as a data center operator for AI workloads, signing strategic partnerships with AI data center designers including Submer. The company’s operating hashrate continues to rise even as it diversifies revenue streams.
The financial results highlight a growing divide in the Bitcoin mining industry. Companies like MARA and CleanSpark are transitioning into power-and-real-estate businesses that sell capacity to AI companies, while other miners have quietly exited Bitcoin mining entirely. Riot Platforms, which reported revenue of 167.2 million dollars (up 3.6 percent year-over-year), became the first major miner to generate data center revenue from AI operations.
Industry observers say the shift reflects a structural change in the mining business model. With Bitcoin’s April 2024 halving cutting block rewards to 3.125 BTC and competition intensifying, miners are finding that their power infrastructure and data center real estate are more valuable serving AI compute demand than mining cryptocurrency alone.
Sources: The Block | Gate.io Research | CoinGeek
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