JPMorgan Favors IREN Over MARA in Bitcoin Miner Showdown

JPMorgan has made conflicting calls on two Bitcoin miners, MARA Holdings Inc. (MARA) and IREN Ltd. (IREN), based on their approaches to converting power capacity into AI compute.

The bank double-downgraded MARA from 'Overweight' to 'Underweight', citing its 'capital-light strategy'. This means MARA has chosen a more indirect approach, focusing on data centers rather than developing its own infrastructure. As a result, JPMorgan sees limited upside for the stock and reduced its price target to $11.

On the other hand, IREN was upgraded from 'Underweight' to 'Overweight', with JPMorgan calling it a 'top-tier neocloud provider'. The bank praised IREN's vertical integration, which includes owning land and data centers, buying GPUs, and selling compute directly to customers. Analyst Richard Choe raised his price target for IREN stock from $46 to $65.

JPMorgan sees around 48% upside for IREN stock from its current price of $43. The bank's confidence in IREN is rooted in its ability to monetize power capacity through AI infrastructure, which it believes will drive further growth and value creation.