Miners pivot to AI compute
Major Bitcoin miners are selling BTC reserves and shifting capital into AI compute contracts—reports say miners could take on roughly $70B in AI business—which will reshape treasuries and on‑chain supply dynamics. That pivot may tighten BTC liquidity near term while creating a new revenue stream tied to the AI infrastructure market. (coindesk.com)
CoinShares’ Q1 2026 mining report finds the weighted‑average cash cost for publicly listed miners to produce one BTC rose to roughly US$79,995 in Q4 2025. (coinshares.com) Public miners have trimmed more than 15,000 BTC from peak treasuries since October 2025 according to sector data compiled by industry trackers. (theblock.co) Cango sold 4,451 BTC in February 2026—about 60% of its reserves—to reduce debt and finance its AI infrastructure pivot. (coindesk.com) Bitdeer liquidated its entire ~1,132.9 BTC treasury in February 2026, while Core Scientific sold roughly 1,900 BTC (~US$175m) in January as part of balance‑sheet reshuffling. (coinpaprika.com) Bitcoin network hashrate peaked near ~1,160 EH/s in October 2025 and has since retreated to roughly 920 EH/s, a pullback that coincided with three consecutive negative difficulty adjustments in early 2026. (coindesk.com) Analysts and reporting tally roughly US$70 billion of AI/HPC contract value that miners and crypto‑data‑center operators have inked or targeted, with marquee deals including Hut 8’s 15‑year, 245MW River Bend lease valued at US$7.0B (base term) and TeraWulf’s 10‑year, ~200MW agreements valued at about US$3.7B. (coindesk.com) The transition is being financed by large debt raises and structured notes: Cipher/Cipher Compute priced approximately US$1.7B of senior secured notes in November 2025 and miners such as IREN and TeraWulf carry multi‑billion convertible and secured debt loads as part of their AI buildouts, shifting sector leverage materially. (coinshares.com) Equity markets have already reflected the shift—TeraWulf shares jumped as much as ~22% on the Fluidstack/Google‑backed deal and Hut 8 stock rallied over 11% after the River Bend lease and related analyst coverage—pricing in premium valuations for miners with secured AI counterparties. (cointelegraph.com)
