Paloma Partners Reduces Core Scientific Position as Mining Efficiency and Costs Shape the Bitcoin Cycle

What happened

According to an SEC filing dated February 17, 2026, Paloma Partners Management Co reduced its holdings in Core Scientific by 2,547,000 shares. The estimated transaction value, based on the average closing price for the fourth quarter of 2025, was $44.41 million. The fund’s position value fell by $46.32 million over the quarter, reflecting both trading activity and share price movement. Paloma Partners now holds 185,000 shares, valued at $2.69 million at year-end.

What else to know

Following the sale, Core Scientific now accounts for 0.49% of Paloma Partners Management Co’s reportable U.S. equity assets.

Top five holdings after the filing:

• NASDAQ:NVDA: $9.88 million (8.0% of AUM)
• NASDAQ:AVGO: $9.69 million (7.9% of AUM)
• NASDAQ:INTC: $8.67 million (7.1% of AUM)
• NASDAQ:AFRM: $8.19 million (6.7% of AUM)
• NASDAQ:TTWO: $5.89 million (4.8% of AUM)

As of February 17, 2026, Core Scientific shares were priced at $17.23, up 39.1% over the past year. The stock outperformed the S&P 500 by 25.81 percentage points over the same period.

Company/Etf overview

Company/Etf snapshot

Core Scientific is a leading provider of digital asset mining and blockchain infrastructure services in North America, leveraging proprietary software and large-scale datacenter operations. The company’s integrated approach combines self-mining with colocation hosting, enabling flexibility and operational scale. With a focus on advanced infrastructure and security, Core Scientific is positioned as a key enabler for institutional adoption of blockchain technologies.

Core Scientific provides digital asset mining, blockchain infrastructure, and colocation hosting services, with revenue streams from mining for its own account and equipment hosting for third parties.

The company operates a dual-segment model: direct mining of digital assets and offering large-scale datacenter colocation and equipment sales for blockchain participants.

Core Scientific’s primary customers include institutional miners, blockchain enterprises, and organizations seeking secure, scalable infrastructure for distributed ledger technology.

What this transaction means for investors

Core Scientific sits at the intersection of Bitcoin price volatility and the high fixed costs of operating large-scale mining datacenters. After rising roughly 39% over the past year, the stock reflects improving crypto sentiment, but its underlying economics remain tied to production efficiency and power costs.

Core Scientific generates revenue in two primary ways: mining Bitcoin for its own account and hosting equipment for institutional customers. The first depends not only on Bitcoin prices but also on mining difficulty and fleet efficiency, which determine how much Bitcoin can be produced per unit of energy. The second depends more on datacenter capacity, energy costs, and long-term hosting relationships. This mix provides upside potential when digital asset markets improve but also exposes the company to operational risk if prices or mining economics decline.

For investors, the key factors to look out for are Core’s Bitcoin production efficiency, power cost management, and the stability of its hosting business. Metrics such as Bitcoin output per megawatt, cost per coin, energy contracts, and debt flexibility will determine whether the recent rally signals stronger fundamentals or is merely a favorable phase in the crypto cycle.