Crypto miners turn to AI and HPC to offset decline

Bitcoin has been tumbling for several weeks now and other cryptos are following the same slippery slope towards the abyss. Together, they carry investors, small and large, often helpless in the face of the violence of the tremors. Even industry giants are sneezing in this difficult context. The miners, the blacksmiths who keep the blockchain running day and night, are taking particularly painful blows. Mining bitcoins makes almost nothing today. Worse still, this activity now costs more than it brings in.

The painful equation: mining bitcoin costs $87,000 but sells for $69,000

First, let's look at the figures put on the table by official reports. MARA Holdings, which is the world's largest public miner, mines each bitcoin for $87,000 on average. The current BTC price is painfully flirting with $69,000. The subtraction is childishly simple: deadweight loss on each block validated by its machines.

Then the hashprice, that essential measure of mining profitability, collapsed to $35 per petahash. Unheard of for years in this industry, which is accustomed to roller coasters.

Analyst Shanaka Perera sums up the situation with words that hit very hard:

This is not flexibility. It’s the math that forces the hand.

To drive the point home deeper, let's take a look at this company's past crypto purchases. By 2025, MARA had acquired 4,267 bitcoins at an average price of $111,034 per unit. These precious sats are now losing 38% of their initial value on paper. The net loss in the fourth quarter reached $1.7 billion, a dizzying figure.

The old credo of miners – “we extract and we keep preciously” – is dying under the terrible weight of the results.

Artificial intelligence, the new Holy Grail for crypto miners in distress

Faced with this unprecedented economic disaster, an attractive alternative is gradually emerging. Artificial intelligence and high performance computing attract all eyes. Financial arbitrage is far too powerful for anyone to ignore. A megawatt devoted to traditional mining yields a low and decreasing multiple. The same megawatt dedicated to AI servers can generate three to twenty-five times more revenue.

The calculations are made, the decisions are made one after the other. MARA signs with Starwood Capital, a real estate giant that manages 125 billion in assets. The objective is clearly stated: transform its American sites into new generation data centers.

Initially, one gigawatt of capacity will be deployed in the territory. Ultimately, two point five gigawatts could see the light of day if all goes well. The minor's action rose 17% on this one promising announcement.

Core Scientific, another heavyweight in the crypto sector, is selling all its bitcoins – around 2,500 – to finance its move towards AI. Bitdeer is emptying its treasury without any apparent qualms. Riot has sold 5,363 BTC over the past year. CleanSpark now sells more than it produces, a sign of new times.

The movement is general, powerful, probably irreversible in the short term.

The great historic divorce: bitcoin producers no longer want to keep it

This technological change hides a deeper truth about the evolution of the market. It reveals a historic break within the entire ecosystem. Shanaka Perera, once again, dots the i’s with rare clarity:

The entities that mine bitcoin no longer want to hold it. The entity that holds the most bitcoin has never mined a single one. Production and accumulation are completely decoupled for the first time in sixteen years.

While miners sell, Strategy, formerly MicroStrategy, buys without stopping. 3,015 BTC last week at a price of $67,700 each. His war chest now reaches 720,737 patiently accumulated bitcoins. Never extracted a single satoshi in his life, and yet.

However, a mystery remains which greatly intrigues informed observers. Identified MARA wallets only show 13,057 BTC on-chain. However, the regulatory filing declares 53,822 to be real. The difference lies with third parties, outside the public blockchain. Since the shock announcement, no major movement has been detected by monitoring tools.

The official document says “we can sell” very clearly. The network says “not yet” at this time. This gap is the real signal to watch for in the coming weeks.

Key figures of the miners’ crisis

• $87,000: cost of producing one bitcoin at MARA, compared to $68,146 on the current market;
• 3 to 25 times: income generated by one megawatt in AI compared to traditional mining;
• 53,822 BTC: reserves declared by MARA, including 13,057 visible on the blockchain;
• 1.7 billion: net loss of the largest miner in the fourth quarter of 2025;
• 720,737 BTC: Strategy treasure, which has never mined a single satoshi.

Crises are merciless to those who go through them. Not everyone emerges from such ordeals unscathed. Last December, Bitmain, the Chinese chip giant, sold off its machines at a loss. Faced with the collapse of mining, he slashed his prices to sell off his stocks. A sign that the storm spares no one, not even the sacred monsters of this industry.