Here’s why CoinShares doubts Bitcoin price recovery will lure back miners

The AI shift trend among Bitcoin miners may continue, as it yields 3x more profits. According to a CoinShares report, AI compute leases return about $1.5 million per megawatt (MW) annually. In contrast, BTC mining generates $500K per MW. 

However, the BTC mining decline in Q2 has flashed key insights that have left experts conflicted about the future of the sector. 

Bitcoin miners pay to stop mining

Notably, Core Scientific, a publicly listed miner, paid about $42M to cancel next-generation mining hardware. Additionally, Keel (formerly Bitfarms) and Cipher dumped part of their BTC reserves to fund AI and data center build-outs. 

In fact, Keel ceased BTC mining in June, and IREN will follow suit by December 2026. At the same time, other public players like MARA have been slowly pivoting into the AI race. 

Among these partial and full pivots, AI now dominates the revenue streams. 

Overall, CoinShares estimates that 35EH/s hashpower will leave listed miners by the end of the year. And, even a BTC price rebound won’t change the AI pivot trend. 

A BTC recovery is unlikely to reverse the AI transition. Core Scientific paid US$41.9m to terminate its 15 EH/s Proto agreement, while several companies have committed sites to 15-year leases.