Bitcoin Miners Flock to AI and HPC as Price Decline Squeezes Profitability

Bitcoin miners are pivoting to AI and HPC infrastructure, transforming market valuations. Companies that redirected their power infrastructure toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing now trade at higher valuation multiples than pure-play bitcoin miners.

According to CoinShares' first-quarter mining report, companies with HPC contracts trade at 12.3 times their enterprise value, while pure-play bitcoin miners are valued at just 5.9 times. This divergence has become one of the clearest signals in crypto markets this year and explains why some mining stocks have thrived even as Bitcoin's price has struggled.

The dollar figures behind this shift keep climbing, with CoinShares estimating that the industry had accumulated $70 billion in contracts related to AI and HPC by the end of the first quarter. Riot Platforms recently signed a 20-year lease with AI company Anthropic valued at $9.1 billion, one of the largest such agreements to date.

Bitcoin's extended price decline has squeezed mining profitability across the board, pushing hashprice down from $63 to around $31.80 per PH/s over the past year. This has led a growing number of operators to turn off their machines, contributing to a 21% drop in Bitcoin's network hashrate.