Public miner audit · Oct 12, 2026 · 6 min read
MARA in the first half of 2026: 6.6¢ per kWh all-in, and $63,000 per bitcoin
MARA mined 4,584 bitcoin in the first half of 2026. Its owned sites pay 4¢ per kWh for power, but about half its bitcoin comes from hosted sites. With hosting fees and site costs in, the whole fleet ran at an estimated 6.6¢ per kWh all-in.
TL;DR
- 4,584 bitcoin mined in the first half of 2026: 2,200 in the first quarter and 2,384 in the second.
- Power at its owned sites cost 4¢ per kWh, MARA's own figure. Those sites mined 2,377 of the 4,584 bitcoin.
- All-in, the whole fleet ran at an estimated 6.6¢ per kWh: power, site upkeep and hosting fees over the energy the whole fleet used.
- Each bitcoin cost $63,000 to make all-in, and $90,200 with overheads, against $74,700 of revenue per bitcoin.
- Hardware is shown separately: $366.2 million of depreciation and amortisation and $94.3 million of equipment spending in the half.
What MARA reported
MARA Holdings is a US company that files quarterly reports with the SEC. This piece covers the two quarters to 30 June 2026, from its first-quarter 10-Q and second-quarter 10-Q, and the shareholder letters filed with them (Q1, Q2). MARA stopped publishing monthly production updates and now reports quarterly.
At 30 June MARA had about 440,000 mining machines and 70.3 EH/s of energised hashrate, at an average 17.3 joules per terahash. Its facilities can draw up to 1.9 GW. Bitcoin mining earned 97% to 99% of its revenue. The rest came from mining software arrangements and Exaion, a French private cloud business it bought this year. It also holds 20% of a mining venture in Abu Dhabi. That venture's bitcoin appears in MARA's headline production (2,247 and 2,422) but not in its revenue or costs, so we leave it out: 2,200 bitcoin in the first quarter and 2,384 in the second.
MARA runs its machines at two kinds of site. At owned sites it buys power directly. At hosted sites it pays another company a hosting fee that bundles power, upkeep and management. In the half, owned sites mined 2,377 bitcoin, about half the total. MARA says its main hosting contracts expire from the third quarter of 2027 to the first quarter of 2028.
The power bill
MARA reports "purchased energy costs": what it paid power providers at its owned sites. That was $44.7 million in the first quarter and $48.8 million in the second. MARA puts the rate at $0.04 per kWh in both quarters and says it receives no significant payment for curtailment, so there are no credits to subtract.
MARA does not report the energy it used. We divide its power bill by its own 4¢ rate: 1.12 million MWh in the first quarter and 1.22 million MWh in the second, at owned sites only. Because the rate is rounded to the cent, these MWh figures could be about 12% higher or lower.
MARA also gives purchased energy cost per bitcoin at its owned sites: $40,047 in the first quarter and $38,690 in the second, over 1,117 and 1,260 bitcoin. Both tie exactly to its power bill. The power bill at hosted sites is not disclosed. It sits inside the hosting fees.
Everything else it takes to run the sites
Two other lines are direct costs of mining. Operating and maintenance (site and machine repairs, staff) came to $56.2 million in the half, excluding stock-based pay. Third-party hosting and other energy costs came to $139.2 million. That line is the hosted sites' all-in bill, plus a small amount of energy for mining other digital assets.
To put a per-kWh rate on the whole operation, we need the energy the whole fleet used, owned and hosted. MARA does not give it, so we estimate it from the bitcoin mined (method below): about 2.16 million MWh in the first quarter and 2.22 million MWh in the second. Power, upkeep and hosting over that energy gives an all-in rate of 6.7¢ in the first quarter, 6.5¢ in the second and 6.6¢ for the half.
General and administrative costs were $86.9 million and $114.7 million. The second quarter included $15.4 million of acquisition costs and a $10.2 million legal settlement. Without stock-based pay, and allocated to mining by its share of revenue, overheads take the rate to 9.4¢ per kWh for the half. Stock-based pay, $72.7 million allocated to mining in the half, is shown separately below.
| Cost | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | H1 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purchased energy (owned sites) | $44.7M | $48.8M | $93.5M |
| Operating and maintenance (excl. stock pay) | $30.0M | $26.3M | $56.2M |
| Third-party hosting and other energy | $70.0M | $69.2M | $139.2M |
| Cash overheads allocated to mining | $56.9M | $67.6M | $124.5M |
| Stock-based pay allocated to mining | $28.7M | $43.9M | $72.7M |
What a bitcoin cost MARA
Divided by bitcoin mined, power, upkeep and hosting came to $65,800 per bitcoin in the first quarter and $60,500 in the second: $63,000 for the half. With cash overheads it was $90,200, and with stock-based pay $106,000. Each bitcoin brought in $74,700 of revenue on average.
The power column is MARA's own figure for its owned sites: their power bill over the bitcoin they mined, $39,328 for the half. Hosted sites' power is inside their hosting fees, so it appears only in the all-in column.
| Period | Bitcoin mined | Power ¢/kWh | All-in ¢/kWh | Loaded ¢/kWh | Power $/BTC | All-in $/BTC | Loaded $/BTC | Revenue $/BTC |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | 2,200 | 4.0¢ | 6.7¢ est. | 9.3¢ est. | $40,047 | $65,800 | $91,600 | $78,300 |
| Q2 2026 | 2,384 | 4.0¢ | 6.5¢ est. | 9.6¢ est. | $38,690 | $60,500 | $88,800 | $71,300 |
| H1 2026 | 4,584 | 4.0¢ | 6.6¢ est. | 9.4¢ est. | $39,328 | $63,000 | $90,200 | $74,700 |
The hardware
Depreciation and amortisation was $191.6 million in the first quarter and $174.7 million in the second. That includes $20.1 million and $28.1 million of faster write-downs on miners MARA expects to retire early, and covers the whole company. In the first quarter MARA also wrote off $41.8 million of mining equipment as part of a restructuring. Spending on property and equipment was $94.3 million in the half.
We keep these out of cost per bitcoin. A machine is the roof over the operation, not what each bitcoin costs to make. Hardware is shown here in full so nothing is hidden.
| Hardware | Q1 2026 | Q2 2026 | H1 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Depreciation and amortisation | $191.6M | $174.7M | $366.2M |
| Impairments (mining equipment) | $41.8M | $0.2M | $42.0M |
| Purchase of property and equipment | $79.5M | $14.8M | $94.3M |
What it means
Hosting at Firsthand's sites runs from 3.9¢ to 6.5¢ per kWh all-in, on our sites page. MARA's whole fleet ran at an estimated 6.6¢ per kWh all-in in the first half of 2026, for 4,584 bitcoin mined. Mining output depends on bitcoin's price, difficulty and uptime, and isn't guaranteed. This is our analysis of the company's public filings, not an audit in the accounting sense.
Method and sources
Bitcoin mined is MARA's reported production minus its share of the Abu Dhabi venture. Revenue is "Bitcoin mining revenue". In the second quarter, revenue divided by MARA's stated average price gives exactly 2,384 bitcoin. In the first quarter it gives about 2,257 rather than 2,200, so the first quarter's revenue per bitcoin ($78,300) is above MARA's stated $76,288.
Owned-site energy is the power bill divided by MARA's stated 4¢ rate, so the 4.0¢ power rate is MARA's figure, not an independent check. Whole-fleet energy is estimated: bitcoin mined, grossed up for a 2% pool fee, divided by the network's hashprice summed over the quarter gives the hashrate that actually ran (55.3 EH/s in the first quarter, 58.2 EH/s in the second). That times MARA's average fleet efficiency over each quarter (18.1 and 17.45 J/TH: the mean of its quarter-start and quarter-end figures of 18.6, 17.6 and 17.3 J/TH, from its 10-K and 10-Qs) and the hours in the quarter gives the energy.
The hosting line bundles hosted-site power with fees and cannot be split, so we put it in the all-in rate, not the power rate. A fixed-price electricity swap at one site is valued separately in MARA's accounts and is left out. Overheads are allocated by Bitcoin mining's share of revenue: 98.6% and 97.3%. Last year's figures come from MARA's 10-K.
Sources and further reading
- MARA Holdings Form 10-K for 2025 — MARA Holdings, 2026-03-02
- MARA Holdings Form 10-Q, first quarter 2026 — MARA Holdings, 2026-05-11
- MARA Q1 2026 shareholder letter (8-K exhibit 99.1) — MARA Holdings, 2026-05-11
- MARA Holdings Form 10-Q, second quarter 2026 — MARA Holdings, 2026-08-06
- MARA Q2 2026 shareholder letter (8-K exhibit 99.1) — MARA Holdings, 2026-08-06
Disclosure
Firsthand Bitcoin sells and hosts mining hardware. This is our analysis of the company's public filings, not an audit in the accounting sense, and it is not investment advice. Every reported figure links to the filing it comes from; figures we estimated are labelled, with their inputs. No company paid for or reviewed this page. Corrections are published with the date they were made.