The number of publicly traded Bitcoin miners is decreasing faster than that of the Bitcoin network as a whole, indicating that operators are re-directing electricity and infrastructure to data centers and High Performance Computing (HPC) in an indication the industry’s evolution.
The latest Miner Weekly BlocksBridge Consulting newsletter reported It is estimated that the realized hashrate for a cohort public Bitcoin miner fell by 13.4% from 368,3 exahashes/second in the 4th quarter of 2020 to just 319 in the 2nd quarter of 2026.
Even more dramatic was the contraction when Bitdeer’s mining operation continued. The cohort hashrate decreased by 21.2% without Bitdeer over a six-month time period. It went from 324.6 EH/s down to 255.9 EH/s. Bitdeer’s hashrate increased by 44%, to 63EH/s.
Comparatively, Bitcoin’s hashrate average declined by 10.6% during the same time period.
As more miner report an increasing share of revenues from non-mining activity, the shift has occurred. Core Scientific Colocation revenues generated by the company during the second quarter were $136.7 millions, while Bitcoin mining only brought in $27.5. TeraWulf The mining industry reported $12.8 million of revenue from HPC leasing, while the HPC leasing sector generated $31.9 million.
Core Scientific, TeraWulf and other companies are now earning the majority of revenue through non-mining activity.
Source: TheEnergyMag
Riot Platforms, Bitdeer and other companies are much further along in their transition. Bitcoin mining continues to be the major source of revenue for both in the latest quarter.
Related: CoreWeave shows how crypto-era infrastructure quietly became AI’s backbone
Unwinding post-China mining boom
BlocksBridge described the current decline as a reversal of the growth cycle which followed China’s ban on Bitcoin mining in 2021. This led to a sharp drop in the network hashrate, before the recovery was rapid as the miners moved overseas.
The migration of public miners in North America helped to fuel their expansion. They raised funds and bought new sites with power for them.
The economics are now significantly different after one cycle of halving. A decline in mining profitability coupled with a surge in demand for AI infrastructure starting 2022 has led several public miner to divert their sites and energy capacity from Bitcoin mining.
Related: Crypto Biz: Crypto’s biggest business is starting to look a lot like banking
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Source: cointelegraph.com
