Public Miners Shed 21% of Bitcoin Hashrate as AI Revenue Accelerates

The analysis found a notable redistribution beneath an apparently stable aggregate: Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ), IREN, Cipher Digital (NASDAQ: CIFR), TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) and Keel Infrastructure (NASDAQ: KEEL) were giving up bitcoin production, while Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR), MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) and American Bitcoin (NASDAQ: ABTC) absorbed much of the displaced network share.

At the time, the system remained roughly balanced.

The second-quarter earnings suggest that balance is beginning to break.

The miners reducing bitcoin exposure continued to unplug machines, but fewer operators expanded enough to compensate. At the same time, colocation revenue rose sharply among the companies furthest along in their conversions.

Core Scientific generated $136.7 million of colocation revenue in Q2, almost five times its $27.5 million of bitcoin mining revenue. Colocation supplied 83% of quarterly sales, up from 67% in Q1, according to the company’s second-quarter results.

TeraWulf followed the same trajectory. HPC lease revenue increased to $31.9 million, or 71% of total revenue, compared with $12.8 million from bitcoin mining. Its HPC share had already reached 62% in Q1 as contracted capacity at Lake Mariner began generating revenue.