$MARA: a progress report, since management isn't writing one.
May shareholder letter: "We intend to communicate clearly as our pipeline advances."
Everything communicated since the Aug 6 call:
??? — ???
That's the list.
Here's what happened in the silence:
• Stock: −45% in a month, −65% in a year, a whisker above the 52-week low. Over five years bitcoin is up. MARA is down 87%. At some point "it's the cycle" stops being an explanation.
• August, the CEO: "The foundation has been built. Our focus now is monetizing it." Eleven weeks later, the only thing visibly leaving the building is the bitcoin: ~2,000 BTC (~$164M) moved to Galaxy and exchanges this month. Explanation to shareholders: none. On-chain trackers are now MARA's most responsive IR department.
• Long Ridge: the seller guided a Q3 close. Q3 is over. FERC approval was expected "soon." The PJM market monitor, which asked FERC to attach conditions, filed again in September. Shareholders learned that from the docket, not from MARA.
• Leases: "at least two by year-end." But Hannibal lease signing is paused until Long Ridge closes, so the lease target now hangs on a regulator management can't hurry and won't discuss.
• Starwood JV: announced in February, ~1 GW "near-term." Eight months, zero tenants announced. And the 8-K fine print: once Starwood lands a qualifying hyperscaler lease, if MARA doesn't come in, it must sell its rights to the powered land to Starwood. "Capital-light" sounds elegant until you notice who's light on capital.
• Funding: $600M of new bitcoin-backed debt at ~7.6%, leaving ~54% of the stack pledged. HODL, but make it collateral.
• The CFO sold 16,000 shares at $7.88 on Oct 19. Retail got the silence for free.
Then there's investor relations.
In the
$MARA Bulls chat, a board member of a competitor dropped by to advertise a BGDE chat run by the same host, where, she noted, the executives are in the mix talking directly with shareholders. "No velvet ropes."
A rival's director walked into MARA's living room to mention that over at her place, management actually shows up. Nobody from MARA objected. What would they have said?
The host of that chat says her largest position in the sector is BGDE, plus CIFR, WULF, CLSK and KEEL. MARA didn't make the list. When the person hosting the MARA bulls chat doesn't name MARA among her holdings, what exactly is the pitch?
Meet
@OGAdvisors: "IR for Bitcoin & AI," followed by
@MARA's own account, with other miners and competitors on the client roster. Running a rival's chat while a rival's director recruits from yours isn't investor relations. It's a referral service, and MARA shareholders are the ones being referred.
The problem isn't
#bitcoin; every miner lives with the same bitcoin. JPMorgan's double downgrade said it politely: peers convert their own power into compute, MARA hands it to a partner and keeps a slice.
Close Long Ridge. Sign a lease. Put a Q3 date on the calendar. And ask
@OGAdvisors whose shareholders they're actually building.
@MARA @fgthiel