New York, March 2, 2026, 15:01 EST — Regular session
- IREN was down 0.3% at $40.85 in afternoon trading after an early dip; it has ranged between $40.51 and $41.19.
- Bitcoin rose 4.5% to about $68,949, lifting some crypto-linked miners; Marathon rose 7.7% while Riot was little changed.
- Traders are looking to Friday’s U.S. jobs report for the next big test of risk appetite.
IREN Ltd shares were little changed on Monday even as bitcoin rallied, leaving the crypto miner-turned AI data center operator lagging some peers in the group.
The setup matters because the stock trades on two storylines that don’t always pull in the same direction: crypto price swings on one side, and investor nerves around who wins and loses from artificial intelligence on the other. “There is very little definitive right now,” Kristina Hooper, chief market strategist at Man Group, told Reuters, describing the churn in AI-linked shares. 1
A nearer-term catalyst sits on the macro calendar. The U.S. Labor Department’s employment report for February is due on Friday, March 6, at 8:30 a.m. ET, a release that can jolt Treasury yields, the dollar and the kind of “risk” trades that often spill into crypto and related stocks. 2
There has not been fresh, market-moving company news in the past day. IREN’s investor relations site shows its most recent SEC filing dated Feb. 13. 3
The last substantive update came with quarterly results on Feb. 5, when IREN said it was shifting capacity from bitcoin mining toward AI cloud work and highlighted GPU financing tied to its Microsoft deal. (GPUs, or graphics processing units, are the chips used to train and run AI models.) “We are seeing the strongest demand environment to date,” co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts said at the time. 4
In November, Microsoft signed a five-year contract with IREN that includes access to Nvidia’s advanced chips, Reuters reported, and the deal can be terminated if IREN misses delivery timelines. 5
Even without new headlines, the tape has been busy. IREN opened well below its prior close and has clawed back losses through the session, while bitcoin hovered below the $70,000 level after swinging between roughly $65,000 and $69,900 on the day.
Peers were mixed. Marathon Digital outperformed on the day, while Riot Platforms steadied and CleanSpark gained.
Investors who trade IREN for bitcoin exposure are watching whether the coin’s bounce holds into the U.S. close. Those leaning into the AI angle are watching financing terms and build-out pace — and whether big customers stay patient when schedules slip.
But there’s an obvious downside case: bitcoin can reverse fast, and “AI cloud” targets are still targets until capacity is built, delivered and paid for. Any wobble in risk sentiment, or a sharper move in yields, can hit both legs of the story at once.
Next up: Friday’s U.S. jobs report (March 6) and whether bitcoin can stay firm around the $69,000 area into the next session. 2
