Bitcoin Miners Abandon Ship as AI and HPC Revenue Surges
Despite recent price fluctuations, Bitcoin's mining economics remain dire, leading many miners to pivot towards more lucrative revenue streams in artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC). The US Senate's failure to advance its digital asset market structure bill, the CLARITY Act, has further weakened BTC's price, which is now below where it started the week.
A new CoinShares report on mining's performance during Q2 2026 shows that listed mining sector companies are struggling to remain profitable, with many paying to cancel orders for new ASIC rigs. The report identifies three defining themes of mining in Q2: miners pivoting to AI/HPC, paying to cancel ASIC orders, and the growing trend of data centers consuming massive amounts of electricity.
According to CoinShares, AI/HPC revenue is currently outpacing Bitcoin mining by a significant margin, with annualized profits of approximately $1.5 million per MW compared to just $0.5 million for mining. The report predicts that at least 35 EH/s (exahashes per second) will be dedicated to AI/HPC in the current quarter, leaving listed mining operators struggling to remain profitable.
The lack of significant transaction fees on the BTC network is also contributing to mining's dire economics. In Q2, transaction fees ranked persistently below 1% of block rewards, a legacy of the highly publicized gelding of BTC's functionality in 2017.