Bitcoin Miners Slash Capacity by 13.4% Amid Shift to AI Infrastructure

Publicly traded Bitcoin miners have been cutting their mining capacity at a faster rate than the overall Bitcoin network. According to BlocksBridge Consulting, a group of public Bitcoin miners saw their realized hashrate decline by 13.4% from 368.3 EH/s in Q4 2025 to 319 EH/s in Q2 2026. Excluding Bitdeer, which continued to expand its operations, the cohort's realized hashrate fell even more sharply, down 21.2% over the six-month period.

The shift away from mining is driven by growing demand for AI infrastructure and high-performance computing (HPC) services. Companies like Core Scientific are generating a significant portion of their revenue from non-mining activities. In Q2 2026, Core Scientific reported $136.7 million in colocation revenue compared to just $27.5 million from Bitcoin mining.

This pullback is seen as an unwinding of the expansion cycle triggered by China's Bitcoin mining ban in 2021. North American miners had raised capital and acquired new power sites to expand their operations, but with weaker mining profitability and surging demand for AI infrastructure, they are now repurposing sites and power capacity away from Bitcoin mining.