Fred Thiel, CEO of MARA Holdings, declared Bitcoin's era as a payment method is over. He pointed out that volatility has knocked Bitcoin out of contention for everyday transactions, leaving stablecoins to dominate this space. The shift is so clear to him that MARA is realigning its business around new opportunities.
Pivoting from mining to AI computing
Thiel highlighted stablecoins as superior for handling high-volume, low-margin transactions, especially in emerging sectors like AI-related payments. Bitcoin, he noted, doesn’t generate native yield. It can’t be staked or pay dividends, which limits its utility beyond being a store of value. Interestingly, he values Bitcoin at around $90,000, about 38% higher than its price near $65,000 in late July 2026.
That valuation doesn't stop MARA from evolving. The company is investing in dual-use data centers that support both Bitcoin mining and AI workloads. The financial driver is stark: AI data centers can pull in $10 to $15 million per megawatt, compared to roughly $1 million per megawatt from Bitcoin mining. This 10x to 15x revenue difference is prompting MARA to redirect investments into AI infrastructure.
To fund this transformation, MARA sold about $1.5 billion of its Bitcoin holdings to cut debt and finance expansion. Despite the pivot, MARA remains one of the largest corporate Bitcoin holders, behind firms like MicroStrategy. The company’s mining capacity grew to 72.2 EH/s in Q1 2026, but it still posted a $1.3 billion net loss, mainly due to Bitcoin’s price slump.
