Bitcoin Miner MARA Wins FERC Nod for $1.5B Long Ridge Deal

By Nodora News · 6 November 2026

MARA Holdings won FERC approval for its $1.5 billion Long Ridge Ohio gas-plant deal, clearing a key close condition for the Bitcoin miner's AI power push.

Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings said on November 5, 2026 that the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved its roughly $1.5 billion acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power, clearing a key regulatory condition before the deal can close. The Ohio package includes a 505-megawatt nameplate combined-cycle natural gas plant and more than 1,600 contiguous acres next to MARA's existing Hannibal mining site — assets the company is pitching as contracted power cash flow and a future AI and high-performance computing campus.

Key takeaways

• FERC found the Long Ridge purchase "consistent with the public interest," satisfying a major closing condition MARA flagged when it announced the deal in April.
• The assets include a 505 MW gas plant (485 MW currently authorized for sale) and more than 1,600 acres with power, water, fiber and rail access in Hannibal, Ohio.
• MARA says closing would lift its owned power generation capacity by more than 300% and add about $144 million of annualized adjusted EBITDA based on Long Ridge's second-half 2025 results.
• Closing is expected in the coming weeks, with a contractual outside date of November 30, 2026, subject to remaining conditions.
• Bitcoin (BTC) traded near $79,849 on OKX at draft time, up about 1.9% over 24 hours, as miners keep splitting attention between hash rate and AI-era power deals.

What FERC approved

In a November 5 release, MARA said FERC authorized the acquisition of Long Ridge Energy & Power LLC from FTAI Infrastructure Inc. The commission's order, filed under docket EC26-92, finds the disposition of jurisdictional facilities consistent with the public interest.

That finding matters because U.S. utility-scale generation transfers typically need FERC clearance under the Federal Power Act. Chairman and CEO Fred Thiel called the order an "important milestone" toward completing the purchase and expanding Long Ridge as part of MARA's push into AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, while saying the company remains committed to serving the PJM grid.

The numbers behind the $1.5 billion deal

When MARA announced the equity purchase agreement in late April 2026, it valued the Long Ridge package at about $1.5 billion and said it would assume a large block of existing indebtedness, with a Barclays bridge facility later disclosed as a financing backstop in SEC filings. Independent coverage at the time put the debt assumption in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Asset specifics that have stayed consistent across the April announcement and the November FERC update include:

• A combined-cycle natural gas plant with 505 MW of nameplate capacity
• About 485 MW currently authorized for sale, with the rest expected toward full nameplate in the first half of 2027
• More than 1,600 contiguous acres with access to power, land, water, fiber and rail
• An illustrative ~$144 million of annualized adjusted EBITDA from Long Ridge's second-half 2025 results (explicitly not a forecast)
• A site that, together with MARA's existing Hannibal operations, points to more than 1 GW of total potential capacity over time

The November release adds that owned power generation capacity would rise by more than 300% upon closing. That figure measures generation MARA owns and sits alongside earlier April language about owned-and-operated capacity rising by a smaller percentage once pipeline assets are counted — two lenses on the same campus, not two different plant sizes.

Why it matters for Bitcoin miners and AI power

The approval lands in a week when peer Riot Platforms highlighted a multi-decade AI data-center land lease in Texas, underscoring how large public miners are racing to monetize scarce megawatts beyond pure Bitcoin hashing. Nodora covered that pivot in Bitcoin miner Riot Signs $28B AI Data Center Lease in Texas. MARA's Long Ridge thesis is adjacent but different: buy the gas plant and the land, keep selling power into PJM for now, then develop incremental generation and behind-the-meter compute for AI and HPC customers over time.

MARA's build timetable still points to construction in the first half of 2027 and initial AI and critical-IT service around mid-2028. The company says it does not expect to cut Long Ridge's current PJM capacity supply, and that future on-site compute should be backed by new generation added later. Mining remains MARA's operating foundation in the company's own framing, while powered land becomes the scarce asset that can support hashing or higher-value compute — a split also visible in this week's American Bitcoin (ABTC) Posts $126M Q3 Profit on BTC Gains.

Market reaction and Bitcoin context

Bitcoin was little changed on the FERC headline itself. On OKX, BTC-USDT last traded near $79,849, up roughly 1.9% over 24 hours after a range between about $78,204 and $81,200. Ether (ETH) was near $2,393, up about 3.2% on the same window. Those moves look more like post-midterm consolidation than a direct reaction to an Ohio power-plant filing.

Energy-backed miner equities have been trading as a hybrid of Bitcoin beta and data-center narrative. A FERC clear that unlocks a contracted generation asset is the kind of de-risking event equity desks watch even when spot BTC is quiet. Traders following the sector on Nodora's Charts page will likely focus less on the hour-to-hour BTC print and more on whether MARA can close by the late-November outside date and convert the campus into signed AI offtake.

What to watch next

Several items remain after FERC's order: closing mechanics and any leftover Hart-Scott-Rodino or financing conditions before the November 30 outside date; how MARA funds the cash portion and how much Long Ridge debt it assumes at close; whether and when a commercial AI or HPC customer is announced for Hannibal/Long Ridge; and progress toward full 505 MW authorized output in the first half of 2027.

FERC approval does not by itself turn Long Ridge into an AI campus. It removes a federal energy-regulatory blocker on a large, powered site that MARA has been assembling for that purpose. The next proof points are a completed close, clear financing, and eventually contracted compute demand.

This article is for information only and is not financial advice.

#Bitcoin #MARA #FERC #mining #AI

This article is general information, not financial advice.