MARA Holdings, Inc. (MARA)·Q4 2024 Earnings Summary

Executive Summary

• Record Q4 2024 results: Revenue $214.4M, diluted EPS $1.24, and adjusted EBITDA $794.4M, driven largely by $742.7M income on fair value of digital assets as bitcoin appreciated into quarter-end .
• Operating KPIs strengthened: energized hash rate reached 53.2 EH/s (+44% q/q, +115% y/y), share of network rewards rose to 5.6%, blocks won +16% q/q, and cash cost per PH/day fell to $35.1 (from $37.1 in Q3 and $42.3 y/y) .
• Strategic pivot accelerated: ownership of energy assets (136 MW owned generation; Texas wind farm with 240 MW interconnect/114 MW nameplate closed Q1’25) to drive toward near-zero energy costs; 30 MW inference AI pilots using MARA’s 2PIC liquid cooling in 2025 .
• Balance sheet capacity/catalysts: year-end holdings 44,893 BTC (~$4.6B cash+BTC), added 15,574 BTC purchases in Q4 via zero-coupon converts; HODL-per-share emphasized as a shareholder yield KPI .

What Went Well and What Went Wrong

• What Went Well

  • “Record high revenues, net income and adjusted EBITDA for the fourth quarter and full year 2024” with owned-sites direct energy cost/bitcoin of $28,801 and cost/kWh $0.039 .
  • Cost discipline: cost per PH/day improved 5% q/q and 17% y/y; energized hash rate scaled to 53.2 EH/s (+115% y/y), supporting higher share of network rewards (5.6%) .
  • Strategic progress: energy asset ownership (136 MW owned generation, flared gas program, wind asset), and AI inference pilots (30 MW) with 2PIC cooling; management sees inference as the profit center in AI .

• What Went Wrong

  • Expense growth: energy/hosting costs rose ~70% y/y to $127.4M on higher operational scale; D&A also up to $136.8M as fleet expanded .
  • Earnings volatility: Net income heavily influenced by bitcoin fair value marks ($742.7M gain in Q4), which management notes will increase earnings volatility as HODL rises .
  • Transaction fee tailwind faded: Q4 transaction fees were 3.5% of rewards vs 13.4% in Q4’23, trimming ancillary revenue contribution .

Financial Results

Revenue, EPS, and Net Income vs prior periods

Notes: S&P Global consensus was unavailable at request time; beat/miss vs estimates not shown. Values retrieved from S&P Global would normally appear here.

Margins and profitability

Segment/Activity breakdown (non-GAAP total margin ex D&A)

Key KPIs

Context on earnings composition: Q4 net income includes $742.7M of income on digital assets (including BTC receivable) as BTC price rose into quarter-end .

Guidance Changes

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

Management Commentary

• “We secured 300% more energy capacity… from ~0.5 GW to ~1.7 GW, and deployed our first owned power-generating assets, reducing our reliance on grid power.”
• “By owning energy assets… our energy cost could be as low as $10/MWh… doubling the useful life of miners… making us more capital efficient.”
• “We believe the real profit in AI is going to come from inference… small inference AI sites… are the future and we want to provide a complete solution.”
• “Adjusted EBITDA increased to $794.4 million in Q4 2024… a new benchmark for the industry.”
• “Our direct energy cost per bitcoin… was $28,801, and cost per kilowatt hour was $0.039 for our owned sites in 2024.”

Q&A Highlights

• AI approach: Avoid commodity mega-training sites; pursue 30 MW inference pilots using 2PIC; emphasize proximity/latency and load balancing as core value .
• Energy asset ownership: Wind farm in Texas enables optimizing “every electron,” extend life of older miners at very low energy cost; target near-zero marginal power .
• NGON micro data centers: 25 MW flared-gas program “fully operational by end of Q1,” with scalability across stranded gas pockets; potential AI optionality at sites .
• Hash rate and supply chain: Focus shifts to capital efficiency vs. raw scale; Auradine 3nm supply and US-made miners mitigate China tariff/customs risks .
• Macro/policy: Bitcoin correlated with equities; institutional/state adoption may be catalysts; collaboration with administration on “Made in USA” mining and blockspace .

Estimates Context

• S&P Global consensus estimates for Q4 2024 revenue and EPS were unavailable at the time of this request due to provider limits; therefore, beat/miss vs. consensus is not shown. We recommend revisiting S&P Global consensus prior to investment decisions to assess estimate revisions and post-print recalibration.

Key Takeaways for Investors

• MARA’s Q4 print was exceptional on headline GAAP metrics, but heavily influenced by bitcoin mark-to-market; focus on underlying unit economics (cost/PH/day, share of rewards, owned power) for sustainable assessment .
• Vertical integration into energy is the key strategic differentiator: owned generation (incl. wind, flared gas) and behind-the-meter strategy can compress cash costs and extend miner life, improving ROCE across cycles .
• AI optionality is moving from narrative to pilots, with a pragmatic focus on edge inference and power/cooling infrastructure rather than commoditized GPU hosting—a potentially de-correlated revenue stream over time .
• Balance sheet leverage to bitcoin remains high (44,893 BTC; converts used to add BTC); earnings volatility will track BTC price; treasury actions can be accretive but add cyclical risk .
• Near-term stock catalysts likely center on: execution at owned energy sites (NGON Q1’25 ramp), wind asset integration, AI pilot milestones, and continued cost-per-PH improvements .
• Medium-term thesis: consolidation and survival-of-the-efficient post-halving; MARA’s push to near-zero energy and AI infrastructure positions it to out-earn peers at lower BTC price decks .

Citations:

• Q4’24 earnings call transcript (02/26/2025):
• Q4’24 8-K and Shareholder Letter (02/26/2025):
• Q3’24 Shareholder Letter (11/12/2024):
• Q2’24 earnings call (08/01/2024):
• Financing context (12/04/2024 zero-coupon converts):