Bitcoin Miners Flock to AI Infrastructure Amid Revenue Slump
Publicly listed Bitcoin miners are rapidly shifting their focus away from cryptocurrency mining and towards artificial intelligence infrastructure, according to digital asset manager CoinShares. By December, this pivot is expected to drive around 70% of these companies' combined revenue.
This projection comes after a brutal quarter for miners, with the hashprice (a measure of daily revenue per petahash) falling to $29, levels last seen after the April 2024 halving. Bitcoin mining gross margins have dropped to roughly 60%, down from above 90% during the 2021 bull run.
James Butterfill, head of research at CoinShares, noted that AI infrastructure offers structurally higher and more stable returns than traditional mining, with cloud margins near 85%. Matthew Kimmell, investment strategist at CoinShares, stated that the transition could mark the end of an era for large US miners due to thin margins and declining hashprice.
Companies have been aggressively moving into AI infrastructure. Core Scientific expanded its CoreWeave deal to $10.2 billion over 12 years, while TeraWulf has $12.8 billion in contracted HPC revenue. MARA Holdings sold over $1 billion in Bitcoin to fund the transition and abandon its long-held HODL strategy.