In brief
- Bitcoin miner MARA posted a less than stellar quarterly report this week.
- Coinbase likewise swung and missed on earnings.
- The good news? Meta might be back in the stablecoin game.
Public Keys is a weekly roundup from Decrypt that tracks the key publicly traded crypto companies. This week: Bitcoin miners wrangle with malaise, Coinbase tries a little misdirection ahead of its earnings miss, and sources say Meta is stablecoin curious.
Bitcoin miners’ malaise
Publicly traded Bitcoin miners have faced some dark days this week.
Stocking up on BTC wasn’t enough to help MARA Holdings, which trades on the Nasdaq under the MARA ticker, outrun a lousy quarterly report on Thursday.
Remember that at the end of March 31, when Bitcoin was trading for around $83,000, the company announced a $2 billion stock offering to raise cash for “general corporate purposes, including the acquisition of Bitcoin and for working capital.” And the company has been no stranger to acquiring Bitcoin on the open market.
Whatever gains the company might realize on BTC purchases with its latest offering will be fodder for Q2 earnings. The company posted a $533 million Q1 loss yesterday, largely due to having to adjust the valuation of Bitcoin that’s on its balance sheet.
But here’s the really troubling detail: Mining output fell 19% even though the Florida company has now doubled its capacity since the 2024 Bitcoin network’s halving.
A quick refresher: The Bitcoin network has now undergone four halving events, which reduce the reward paid to Bitcoin miners by half. Last year’s event saw the reward drop to 3.125 BTC.
But that doesn’t mean investors are racing for the doors. MARA opened Friday trading for $15.16, 6% higher than yesterday’s close. And while MARA bought Bitcoin in Q1, its rival Riot Platforms outsold all other publicly traded miners by unloading 475 Bitcoin in April, worth $38.8 million at the time.
Time to moth ball the mining rigs? Nah, not all of them, according to investment bank Benchmark. On Tuesday, the bank’s analysts set a 5x price target of $3 and buy rating for Canaan, which trades on Nasdaq under the CAN ticker.
Equity research analyst Mark Palmer is betting that Canaan’s North American expansion will help its stock rise. But a few hours before the closing bell Friday, it was down 5.87% for the week and trading for $0.75.
Source: https://decrypt.co/
