Bitcoin Miners Shift Focus from Cryptocurrency to Digital Infrastructure

Bitcoin miners are no longer tied to Bitcoin's price fluctuations, according to a recent report by CoinShares. Over the past year, four of the five largest miners gained despite Bitcoin falling 31%. The shift is attributed to miners increasingly leasing power contracts to artificial intelligence data centers.

Efficient mining rigs have turned a profit while older machines lost money due to high energy consumption. Miners are now generating significant revenue from AI colocation, with Core Scientific reporting 83% of its second-quarter revenue came from this source.

Riot signed a 191-megawatt, 20-year lease worth $9.1 billion in contracted revenue, and Hut 8 has lined up 949 megawatts of AI capacity valued at $26.6 billion. The CoinShares Bitcoin Mining and Digital Power ETF (WGMI A-) has expanded its mandate to include hyperscale data centers, AI semiconductors, and power generation.