Bitcoin miners which might be 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 doubtless power one other industry-wide reckoning. Many might not survive,” the letter mentioned.
The assertion comes because the mining {industry} has already been struggling to remain worthwhile following a current halving occasion that noticed bitcoin rewards minimize 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. “People who fail to distinguish can be relegated to being value 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 have to cater to different computing wants corresponding to AI and HPC.
“Our potential to accumulate websites and generate low value vitality, activate depreciated {hardware} and vitality belongings, and run a vertically built-in mannequin – from software program and {hardware}, and now, to vitality era – will present us higher management over prices.” To this finish, MARA most just lately purchased a Texas wind farm that may decrease the miner’s energy prices.
MARA mentioned it has additionally ramped up growth and gross sales of information middle infrastructure, which is able to change into 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 programs and companies, corresponding to 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 line with FactSet knowledge. 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 Powerful Market Situations for Smaller Miners