CoinShares anticipates that the migration of publicly traded bitcoin mining firms into the artificial intelligence infrastructure space will probably persist, even if the value of bitcoin stages a recovery.
“An upward move in BTC is improbable to overturn the artificial intelligence shift,” CoinShares noted in its Q2 bitcoin mining report released on Tuesday.
Luke Nolan, the author of the study, highlighted instances demonstrating why this migration will prove hard to unwind. Core Scientific shelled out close to $42 million to terminate a contract for 15 EH/s worth of advanced mining gear, whereas various other firms have dedicated their facilities to artificial intelligence and high-performance computing agreements extending past 15 years.
At a minimum, 35 EH/s of processing capacity is slated to depart the publicly traded mining cohort, matching roughly 4.7 percent of the overall 750 EH/s network hashrate.
Keel, previously known as Bitfarms, halted its mining operations completely this June, whereas IREN intends to finish its departure prior to the close of 2026, and Cipher Digital will likely exit the mining industry before 2027 concludes. TeraWulf is likewise phasing out its remaining 145 megawatts of mining capacity.
AI vs. BTC
A brief examination of the challenging economics contrasting artificial intelligence with bitcoin mining readily clarifies this pivot. CoinShares calculates that artificial intelligence currently yields earnings of roughly $1.5 million per megawatt for these businesses, contrasting with approximately $500,000 per megawatt derived from bitcoin mining.
A persistent appreciation in the bitcoin price could enhance those figures and might even prompt enterprises to establish supplementary mining infrastructure. Even so, CoinShares projects that such capital allocation will occur primarily among miners such as Riot, MARA, HIVE, and Bitdeer, which have maintained flexible operational strategies.
The mean cash expenditure to mint a single bitcoin hit approximately $75,500 over the second quarter, whereas bitcoin closed out Q2 at a mere $58,400. The monthly average hash price—representing the income miners generate per single unit of computational strength—dropped to a historic low of $27.70 per PH/s daily in June.
Market conditions have rebounded moderately since then, with bitcoin climbing back to roughly $77,000, which elevated the hash price near $38 per PH/s daily and returned the majority of enterprises past their cash operating breakeven threshold.
Nonetheless, CoinShares projects that mining companies which have already dedicated their electricity supplies and physical infrastructure toward artificial intelligence will maintain their path and will not return.
Originally published at https://www.theblock.co/news/markets/2026-09-15-bitcoin-price-recovery-unlikely-lure-ai-focused-miners-back-coinshares-says-414844.
