MARA vs IREN Stock Comparison: AI Score, Valuation, Performance and Upside
MARA and IREN started in the same business and have taken opposite strategic paths. MARA doubled down on scale and on holding mined bitcoin, making it effectively a leveraged bitcoin proxy with a mining operation attached. IREN is converting its owned, powered sites into AI cloud and HPC capacity, trading bitcoin upside for contracted data centre revenue. The choice is largely a choice between bitcoin price exposure and data centre infrastructure exposure.
Use this MARA vs IREN comparison to work out which risk you actually want. If bitcoin doubles, MARA's treasury does much of the work. If AI compute demand keeps absorbing every available megawatt, IREN's owned power and interconnects become the more valuable asset. Judging both on mining metrics alone misses what each is now becoming.
IREN holds the edge across 4 of 5 key metrics in this comparison. IREN has delivered stronger 1-year price return (-4.68% vs -21.90%), though MARA has the better forward P/E setup (-63.05x vs -149.43x for IREN). IREN leads on both revenue growth (-26.70%) and operating margin (-102.47%), suggesting a stronger fundamental setup on both dimensions. Analyst consensus implies meaningfully more upside for IREN (+96.58%) than for MARA (+39.05%).
Human Wall Street analysts' price targets, typically implying a ~12-month view — a separate signal from this site's own AI Prediction Signal further down the page, which is a 5-/30-day machine-learning forecast based on price history alone.
- Want amplified exposure to the bitcoin price through both mining and a retained treasury
- Prefer the largest hashrate operator for scale economics
- Accept recurring dilution as the cost of accumulating bitcoin without selling production
- Can tolerate earnings that swing on digital asset fair-value accounting
- Value owned land and secured grid power as the durable asset in this industry
- Believe AI cloud contracts will produce steadier revenue than mining ever could
- Prefer a company that sells production and funds itself from cash flow where possible
- Accept execution risk on converting sites to AI-grade infrastructure
| Metric | MARA | IREN |
|---|---|---|
| AI scorei | 25.4 | 32.9 |
| AI ranki | #2722 | #1985 |
| Latest closei | $12.55 | $44.13 |
| 1M returni | +11.85% | +11.48% |
| 6M returni | +56.48% | +25.75% |
| 1Y returni | -21.90% | -4.68% |
How much would $10,000 be worth today if invested at the start of each period, with all dividends reinvested?
| Period | MARA | IREN |
|---|---|---|
| 1Y ago | $7.81K (-21.9%) started 2025-09-25 | $9.53K (-4.7%) started 2025-09-25 |
| 5Y ago | $3.57K (-64.3%) started 2021-09-27 | $18.05K (+80.5%) started 2021-11-17 |
| 10Y ago | $2.84K (-71.6%) started 2016-09-26 | $18.05K (+80.5%) started 2021-11-17 |
Hypothetical — past performance does not guarantee future results.
| Metric | MARA | IREN |
|---|---|---|
| Market capi | $5.11B | $15.6B |
| Trailing P/Ei | N/A | N/A |
| Forward P/Ei | -63.05 | -149.43 |
| Price/Salesi | N/A | N/A |
| EV/Revenuei | 9.03 | 24.82 |
| Analyst targeti | $18.41 | $77.84 |
| Target upsidei | +39.05% | +96.58% |
| Metric | MARA | IREN |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue growthi | -26.70% | -26.70% |
| Earnings growthi | N/A | N/A |
| EPS growthi | N/A | N/A |
| FCF margini | -145.25% | -596.78% |
| Operating margini | -265.21% | -102.47% |
| Profit margini | 0.00% | -99.38% |
| ROIC proxyi | -105.57% | -23.41% |
| Return on equityi | -105.57% | -23.41% |
| Dividend yieldi | N/A | N/A |
| Payout ratioi | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| Dividend growth streaki | N/A | N/A |
| Betai | 5.34 | 4.30 |
| Debt/equityi | 140.16 | 187.30 |
| Current ratioi | 0.89 | 3.55 |
| Quick ratioi | 0.76 | 2.66 |
Over the past year, MARA and IREN have moved moderately in the same direction (correlation of 0.64), based on daily returns.
Lower drawdown and smaller single-period drops generally indicate a smoother ride, though they do not guarantee lower future risk.
| Period | Metric | MARA | IREN |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1Y | Growthi | -21.90% | -4.68% |
| CAGRi | -21.92% | -4.68% | |
| Volatilityi | 87.05% | 108.68% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.09 | 0.45 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.14 | 0.70 | |
| Max drawdowni | 70.53% | 61.64% | |
| Current drawdowni | 45.05% | 42.25% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 46.31% | 35.88% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 49.04% | 38.76% | |
| Max daily dropi | 18.72% | 17.37% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 31.74% | 33.51% | |
| 5Y | Growthi | -64.32% | +80.47% |
| CAGRi | -18.65% | +12.93% | |
| Volatilityi | 106.18% | 117.92% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.28 | 0.63 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.44 | 1.03 | |
| Max drawdowni | 95.86% | 95.73% | |
| Current drawdowni | 83.51% | 42.25% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 77.68% | 61.41% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 79.29% | 65.81% | |
| Max daily dropi | 27.03% | 36.45% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 43.81% | 42.49% | |
| 10Y | Growthi | -71.58% | +80.47% |
| CAGRi | -11.83% | +12.93% | |
| Volatilityi | 145.00% | 117.92% | |
| Sharpe ratioi | 0.50 | 0.63 | |
| Sortino ratioi | 0.96 | 1.03 | |
| Max drawdowni | 99.11% | 95.73% | |
| Current drawdowni | 83.51% | 42.25% | |
| Avg drawdowni | 77.85% | 61.41% | |
| Ulcer Indexi | 80.54% | 65.81% | |
| Max daily dropi | 40.86% | 36.45% | |
| Max wkly dropi | 52.63% | 42.49% |
| Category | MARA | IREN |
|---|---|---|
| Company | MARA Holdings, Inc. | IREN Limited |
| Sector | Financial Services | Financial Services |
| Industry | Capital Markets | Capital Markets |
| Core business | One of the largest bitcoin miners by installed hashrate, operating across multiple sites and increasingly owning its own energy infrastructure. Retains mined bitcoin on the balance sheet rather than selling it, so the company functions partly as a leveraged bitcoin holding vehicle. | Operates bitcoin mining at owned, purpose-built data centre sites with secured grid power, and is converting part of that footprint into AI cloud and high-performance computing capacity leased to third parties. |
| Investor focus | Hashrate growth versus network difficulty, cost per bitcoin mined, size and accounting treatment of the bitcoin treasury, and dilution from equity and convertible issuance. | AI cloud contract wins and contracted revenue, secured power capacity and land pipeline, mining cost efficiency, and capital needed for GPU and liquid-cooled buildouts. |
- Scale leader in hashrate, which spreads fixed costs across more mined output
- Large retained bitcoin treasury gives direct upside to the bitcoin price on top of mining economics
- Moving toward owned power and energy assets to control its largest input cost
- Owns land and secured grid power interconnects, the scarcest input for both mining and AI data centres
- AI cloud and HPC hosting can produce contracted revenue far less volatile than mining
- Purpose-built, efficient sites keep mining cost per coin competitive
- Earnings are dominated by bitcoin price moves and fair-value accounting swings rather than operations
- Holding rather than selling mined bitcoin means operations are funded largely by issuing shares and converts
- Post-halving block rewards squeeze margins whenever the bitcoin price does not compensate
- The AI pivot requires heavy capital for GPUs and liquid cooling, and competes against far larger operators
- Sells most mined bitcoin rather than holding it, so there is less treasury upside if bitcoin rallies
- Converting mining sites to AI-grade facilities is a technical and commercial execution risk
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