MARA and Block jump double digits in pre-market trading while CoreWeave sinks
TL;DR
MARA surged 16% on an AI data center partnership with Starwood, while Block jumped 20% after announcing major workforce cuts. CoreWeave dropped 12% due to weak guidance and higher capex, highlighting mixed earnings in crypto and tech sectors.
Key Takeaways
- •MARA Holdings climbed 16% after partnering with Starwood to convert bitcoin mining facilities into AI data centers, targeting over 2.5 gigawatts of capacity.
- •Block surged 20% as it plans to cut over 40% of its workforce, with improved Q1 profit forecasts offsetting concerns about margin pressures.
- •CoreWeave fell 12% despite beating revenue estimates, due to softer Q1 guidance, higher capital expenditure, and a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.
- •Earnings season shows a mixed performance across crypto miners and fintech, with AI infrastructure gaining investor interest amid broader market volatility.
- •Bitcoin remained flat around $67,000, while AI-related tokens like Internet Computer and Render saw gains, influenced by sector trends and Nvidia's earnings.
What to know:
- MARA climbed 16% in pre-market trading after announcing a Starwood partnership to expand into AI data centers.
- Block surged 20% ahead of the open, announcing it will cut more than 40% of its workforce.
- CoreWeave dropped about 12% after posting a wider than expected quarterly loss and issuing softer Q1 revenue guidance, with sharply higher capex plans.
- MARA climbed 16% in pre-market trading after announcing a Starwood partnership to expand into AI data centers.
- Block surged 20% ahead of the open, announcing it will cut more than 40% of its workforce.
- CoreWeave dropped about 12% after posting a wider than expected quarterly loss and issuing softer Q1 revenue guidance, with sharply higher capex plans.
Earnings season is wrapping up with a mixed bag of results across crypto miners, AI infrastructure plays and fintech names, including MARA Holdings (MARA), TerraWulf (WULF), CoreWeave (CRWV) and Block (XYZ).
Bitcoin BTC$67,963.04 has remained relatively flat around $67,000 during Asia and European hours, with limited movement spilling over into other crypto related equities.
MARA Holdings jumped 16% to $9.80 after striking a deal with Starwood Capital to convert select bitcoin mining facilities into AI focused data centers. The partners expect to deliver about 1 gigawatt of capacity in the near term, with plans to scale beyond 2.5 gigawatts.
The pivot reflects a broader shift among miners looking to monetize power access as AI compute demand surges, following Bitfarms (BITF) and Cipher Digital (CIFR) amongst others.
TerraWulf is trading 3.5% lower at $17 after its Q4 print, with revenue down due to lower bitcoin production and transitional GAAP optics.
However, executives emphasized that the key story is the ramp in contracted high performance computing revenue. The company has expanded from one site a year ago to five today and expects about 2.9 gigawatts of gross capacity by year end, according to head of digital assets VanEck, Matthew Sigel.
CoreWeave shares are down 12% despite revenue of $1.57 billion, beating expectations of $1.53 billion. The company reported weaker than forecasted Q1 revenue guidance, in addition to an increase in capital expenditure, which raised concerns about profitability and cash burn. EPS came in at -$0.89 versus -$0.68 expected, a 31% miss.
Block is up 20% after announcing it will cut more than 40% of its workforce, reducing headcount to about 6,000. While management pointed to AI driven efficiencies, investors are also weighing longer term margin pressure from stablecoin based payment rails.
The company guided Q1 operating income to $600M versus $574M expected, forecast Q1 gross profit of $2.8B versus $2.72B consensus and raised full year gross profit, according to Sigel.
- Bitcoin is facing renewed selling pressure, dropping 2% in 24 hours, with ether, XRP, solana and the CoinDesk 20 Index (CD20) registering similar losses.
- Positioning in futures and options shows traders looking to protect against further declines.
- Internet computer, render and bittensor were among AI-related tokens to benefit from renewed investor interest in the sector, boosted in part by Nvidia’s earnings report.
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