IREN Stock Skyrockets 11% – Outshines Bitcoin Mining Titan MARA in Stunning Upset

IREN just pulled off a David vs. Goliath moment—and Wall Street’s scrambling to adjust its spreadsheets.

The underdog bites back

While analysts were busy polishing MARA’s golden halo, IREN’s rigs quietly churned out enough hashrate to send its stock screaming past the competition. That 11% surge? Pure market adrenaline.

Mining’s new power play

Forget ‘too big to fail’—this is the era of ‘too efficient to ignore.’ IREN’s proving that in crypto mining, lean ops and smart energy deals can outmuscle even the flashiest ASIC farms. (Take notes, legacy players.)

The cynical take

Let’s see how long until hedge funds ‘discover’ this ‘undervalued gem’—right after loading up their own positions, naturally.

TLDR

• IREN mined 728 Bitcoin in July, beating MARA’s 703 BTC despite having lower hashrate capacity
• IREN shares jumped 11.4% to $18.32, pushing market cap to $4.11 billion, second-highest among public Bitcoin miners
• IREN achieved over 90% fleet utilization compared to MARA’s 75% fleet operation rate
• Company generated $86 million total revenue in July, including $2.3 million from AI cloud services
• IREN now leads all mining companies by operational hashrate at 45.4 EH/s average

IREN Limited posted strong July results that pushed the company ahead of industry leader MARA Holdings in Bitcoin production. The Sydney-based mining company mined 728 Bitcoin during the month, compared to MARA’s 703 Bitcoin.

The results came despite IREN operating with lower total hashrate capacity than its competitor. IREN deployed 50 exahashes per second while MARA had 58.9 EH/s available.

IREN achieved an average operational hashrate of 45.4 EH/s in July. This represents over 90% fleet utilization throughout the month.

MARA operated at just under 75% fleet capacity with a realized hashrate of 43.94 EH/s. The company mined fewer bitcoin despite having higher total capacity.

The mining results drove IREN shares up 11.4% to close at $18.32 on Wednesday. Most other Bitcoin mining stocks gained between 1% and 5% on the same day.

IREN’s stock performance pushed its market capitalization to $4.11 billion. This makes it the second-largest public Bitcoin mining company by market value, overtaking Riot Platforms and Core Scientific.

Revenue and Profitability Metrics

IREN reported total revenue of $86 million for July, generating $66 million in hardware profits. The company achieved revenue per Bitcoin mined of $114,891.

The mining operations faced increased difficulty during July as Bitcoin’s network hashrate climbed above 900 EH/s for the first time. Higher mining difficulty increases energy consumption and puts pressure on profit margins.

IREN’s strong fleet utilization helped offset these challenges. The company kept most of its mining equipment online and productive throughout the month.

Diversification Into AI Services

IREN generated $2.3 million in revenue from its artificial intelligence cloud business during July. This represents part of the company’s strategy to diversify beyond Bitcoin mining.

The company purchased 2,400 Nvidia Blackwell GPUs in early July for AI operations. IREN received an initial delivery of 256 units and reports growing demand for these services.

Co-founder and co-CEO Daniel Roberts said the company sees “accelerating interest” in its GPU offerings. The dual operation of mining rigs and GPUs demonstrates the adaptability of IREN’s infrastructure.

MARA Holdings remains focused purely on Bitcoin mining without diversification into high-performance computing. MARA holds 50,639 Bitcoin worth over $5.8 billion, making it the second-largest corporate Bitcoin holder.

IREN’s July performance marks a turnaround from previous skepticism. Short-selling firm Culper Research called the company “wildly overvalued” in 2023, comparing its AI efforts to competing in Formula 1 with a Toyota Prius.

IREN shares fell from $12.31 to $5.59 in April 2024 but have rallied 227% over the past four months to reach current levels.