Public Bitcoin Miners Cut Hashrate 13.4% as AI Infrastructure Revenue Surges

Woofun AI reports that publicly traded Bitcoin miners are accelerating the reduction of mining capacity, a move signaling a broader sector pivot toward AI infrastructure and high-performance computing (HPC) data centers rather than pure crypto creation. This strategic redirection is evident across the industry, with the exception of Bitdeer, which continues to expand its mining operations.

The contraction in realized hashrate was pronounced, dropping 13.4% overall, but fell sharply to 21.2% over the six-month period when Bitdeer was excluded. During this timeframe, the cohort's hashrate declined from 324.6 EH/s to 255.9 EH/s, while Bitdeer's realized hashrate increased 44% to 63 EH/s. In contrast, the Bitcoin network's average hashrate declined by only 10.6% during the same period.

Revenue structures are shifting dramatically as miners prioritize non-mining activities. Core Scientific generated $136.7 million in colocation revenue during the second quarter, compared with just $27.5 million from Bitcoin mining. Similarly, TeraWulf reported $31.9 million in HPC lease revenue against $12.8 million from mining. Per Woofun AI, Riot Platforms and Bitdeer remain earlier in this transition, with Bitcoin mining still accounting for the vast majority of their recent quarterly revenue.

BlocksBridge characterizes this pullback as the unwinding of the expansion cycle triggered by China's Bitcoin mining ban in 2021, which caused a sharp network hashrate decline before miners relocated to North America. One halving cycle later, the economics have shifted significantly; weaker mining profitability combined with surging demand for AI infrastructure since 2022 has prompted public miners to repurpose sites and power capacity away from Bitcoin mining entirely.