Bitcoin Miners Abandon Hashing Power for Power Interconnection Deals

The Bitcoin mining industry is undergoing a significant transformation as companies shift their focus from hashing power to securing large-scale power interconnections. CoreWeave's bid to acquire Core Scientific for $9 billion will bring it 1.3 gigawatts of power capacity across nine US sites, demonstrating that infrastructure execution beats hardware procurement.

Keel Infrastructure, formerly Bitfarms, has redomiciled to Delaware and changed its name to focus on real estate and power, which some see as an exit from mining rather than a diversification. Most miners are discarding their SHA-256 ASICs because they have no value for AI workloads.

The build cost for AI-ready capacity jumps to $8 million or $15 million per megawatt, compared to $700,000 or $1 million for mining. However, what carries over from mining is the interconnection agreement, the substation, the fiber, and the land, allowing companies to leverage their grid access to capture high-margin lease revenue from AI tenants.