MARA, CLSK, BTDR Draw Bullish Calls: Bitcoin Miners Are Becoming AI Landlords, And This Analyst Believes Market Hasn’t Priced It In Yet

The bullish call comes as all three remained unprofitable due to non-cash Bitcoin writedowns, and investors question AI data center demand.

• Citizens launched 'Outperform' coverage of bitcoin miners MARA Holdings, CleanSpark, and Bitdeer Technologies.
• The firm set price estimates of $24 on MARA, $27 on CleanSpark, and $35 on Bitdeer, representing 59% to 106% upside from Tuesday’s closing price.
• As peers outperformed the S&P 500 over the past year, analyst Greg Miller said the miners will profit from improved economics and increased demand for "powered capacity".

Bitcoin mining stocks got another vote of confidence from Wall Street with investors viewing the sector as an AI infrastructure play rather than a pure cryptocurrency bet. Citizens initiated coverage of three of the largest publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) miners on Wednesday, betting that the companies can repurpose power once dedicated to mining to build a profitable businesses selling computing capacity to artificial intelligence customers.

The firm initiated coverage of MARA Holdings (MARA), CleanSpark (CLSK), and Bitdeer Technologies (BTDR), assigning ‘Outperform’ ratings and price targets of $24, $27, and $35, respectively. 

The AI Compute Opportunity

Miners were following peers in converting existing power capacity originally used for bitcoin mining to deliver high-performance computing, or HPC, to hyperscale customers, said Citizens analyst Greg Miller. 

The need for powered capacity continues to grow, Miller wrote investors in a research report. The economics for suppliers of that capacity have improved substantially. The three would ride the same trends that have helped most of their peers to dramatically outpace the S&P 500 (SPX) over the past year, the firm added. Across the group, Citizens’ targets projected upside between around 59% and 106%

Bitdeer Offers Biggest Upside 

Of the three, BTDR’s price has the highest upside, trading at around $17, compared to Citizens' target price of $35, suggesting a potential gain of approximately 106%, or nearly double. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around BTDR remained in the ‘bearish’ zone.

MARA’s price was trading at $14 with a $24 target, implying about 71% upside, and CLSK’s price was trading near $17 with a $27 target for the lowest call at about 59%. On Stocktwits, retail sentiment around MARA remained in the ‘neutral’ zone, while retail sentiment around CLSK stayed in the ‘bearish’ zone over the past day. 

The initiation added another bullish call to a trade that has already been re-rated higher in the sector. Over the past few weeks, analysts at Bernstein have dubbed miners the “power landlords of AI,” and JPMorgan (JPM) has pointed to a “higher-conviction” period of HPC and cloud-compute shifts as miners ink long-term, billion-dollar contracts with hyperscalers and chip makers. 

Citizens agreed that the corporations were following others' lead rather than pioneering the transition.

Why Investors Remain Skeptical

All three miners were deeply unprofitable, although the losses were mostly due to non-cash impairment charges on their Bitcoin holdings rather than operational collapse. MARA posted a net loss of around $1.26 billion in its most recent quarter, CleanSpark reported a quarterly loss of $378.3 million, and Bitdeer reported a negative gross margin in the first quarter. 

Analysts have pointed to free cash flow burn at CleanSpark despite the firm boasting one of the better balance sheets in the market, with about $1 billion in working capital. 

Wall Street has warned that the buildouts would dilute shareholders as fully diluted share counts go up across the business, and that the thesis rests on continuous demand for AI data center capacity, an assumption some investors have begun to question as scrutiny of AI expenditure rises.

The BTC mining stocks were volatile in 2026, moving with Bitcoin’s price and sentiment around the AI trade. Bitcoin has been down over 28% so far this year.

For updates and corrections, email newsroom[at]stocktwits[dot]com<