MARA stock has come under intense pressure in the past few months as the neocloud industry faces some major challenges. It has slumped by 27% from its year-high and by 60% from its 2025 high. Will this Bitcoin miner rebound or crash amid its AI data center pivot?
Short Sellers Are Targeting MARA Stock
Traders are betting that MARA stock has more downside to go in the near term. Data compiled by Benzinga shows that short sellers hold 102 million shares, representing a short interest of 30%.
MARA is not alone. Indeed, a closer look at all Bitcoin mining companies pivoting to the AI data center industry shows elevated short interest. For example, IREN Holdings has a short interest of 18%, while Riot Platforms has 15.2%. It seems short sellers have prevailed, as MARA and these companies have continued to decline over the past few days.
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There are a few reasons why MARA Holdings stock has pulled back in the past few weeks. First, the industry has become highly competitive, with new entrants entering almost monthly. SpaceX is one of the biggest competitors and is already winning clients. For example, it has secured deals with companies like Reflection AI, Google, and Anthropic.
Meta Platforms is also reportedly entering the industry by selling some of its excess computing power. If this approach is successful, other top hyperscalers that have spent billions in the data center industry may also do the same. In a recent statement, TeraWulf reached a 20-year deal with Anthropic.
Second, there are fears that the company will dilute its shareholders by selling equity in the coming months. That’s because the cost of deploying data centers has continued to rise, with memory, servers, and GPUs maintaining their uptrend. Data show that MARA’s outstanding shares have continued to rise, reaching 380 million from last year’s low of 340 million.
Other companies in the neocloud industry have seen their debt surge in the past few months. For example, CoreWeave’s debt has jumped to over $35 billion, a figure that will continue to rise due to its massive revenue backlog.
MARA Holdings is using a different strategy from most neocloud companies. It inked a partnership with Starwood to convert some of its Bitcoin operations into AI data centers. Instead of just building data centers, the company is designing them around specific customer requirements. It also acquired a 64% stake in Exaion to gain a foothold in Europe.
MARA Holdings Stock Price Technical Analysis
The daily chart shows that MARA Holdings peaked at $16.4 on June 22nd and then dropped to $11.80 today. It has moved below the lower side of the ascending channel and is approaching the 50% Fibonacci Retracement level.
The stock has dropped below the 50-day moving average, while the Relative Strength Index (RSI) has continued falling. Therefore, the stock will likely continue falling, potentially to the key support level of $10.
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