New York, February 11, 2026, 08:16 EST — Premarket
- Shares of MARA slipped in premarket trading following a steep decline the day before.
- Morgan Stanley stuck with its underweight rating, zeroing in on whether bitcoin miners can successfully transition into data center operations.
- Traders are eyeing bitcoin’s next move alongside Friday’s U.S. inflation report.
MARA Holdings, Inc. shares dropped 2.3% to $7.48 in premarket trading Wednesday, following a nearly 5% decline in the previous session.
The bitcoin miner’s stock is tracking the broader crypto market once more, reigniting the old debate on Wall Street: are mining companies merely leveraged bets on bitcoin, or can they generate more stable cash flow by converting their power and facilities into data centers?
This matters today since the “pivot to data centers” narrative has become a go-to for investors looking to stabilize valuations as bitcoin dips. When the token’s already sliding, a cautious analyst report can pack an even bigger punch.
Bitcoin dipped roughly 2.4% to $66,880, dragging crypto-related stocks lower before the U.S. markets opened.
Morgan Stanley kicked off coverage of MARA with an underweight rating and set an $8 price target, according to TipRanks. They pointed out that “bitcoin mining economics are the dominant driver” behind the stock’s value. (Underweight means Wall Street expects the stock to underperform its peers or benchmark.) TipRanks
The bank described its approach as a “hybrid” strategy, steering clear of fully pivoting to leasing data centers to major cloud players. It also noted MARA’s limited experience in hosting data centers. Morgan Stanley raised questions about bitcoin mining’s profitability in both the short and long run, Investing.com reported. Investing
A Morgan Stanley team headed by Stephen Byrd began coverage on multiple miners, assigning overweight ratings to Cipher Mining and TeraWulf, while marking MARA as underweight, according to a Motley Fool report on the note.
For miners, the basics are straightforward despite the complex story: revenue hinges on bitcoin’s price and mining difficulty—that’s how tough it is to generate new bitcoin. Costs, meanwhile, come down to power, gear, and financing. If a data center secures long-term contracts, it starts to resemble infrastructure rather than just a stand-in for trading.
That decoupling isn’t assured. Should bitcoin continue its decline, or if the anticipated data-center contracts drag on, miners could find themselves stuck with tightening margins while the market still treats them as volatile crypto bets.
Macro factors might add some complexity. The U.S. consumer price index for January drops Friday, Feb. 13 at 8:30 a.m. ET. This report often sways rate expectations and tends to ripple through risk assets like crypto.
