CoinShares says AI generates ~$1.5M per MW vs. ~$500K for BTC mining, and 35 EH/s is already committed to leaving the listed miner group, regardless of BTC price.
Bitcoin News
Publicly traded Bitcoin (BTC) miners that have moved to artificial intelligence infrastructure are unlikely to reverse that decision, even if Bitcoin prices climb further, according to a Q2 mining report published by CoinShares on Sept. 15. Researcher Luke Nolan said the contracts already signed make the shift structurally irreversible for most operators. Core Scientific paid nearly $42 million to cancel an agreement for 15 EH/s of next-generation mining hardware, demonstrating the financial cost of even attempting a reversal.
Other operators have signed AI and high-performance computing leases running 15 years or more. Those commitments effectively lock them into the AI path independent of where BTC trades. At least 35 EH/s of computing power is already scheduled to exit the publicly listed mining group, equivalent to approximately 4.7% of Bitcoin's current network hash rate of 750 EH/s.
AI Profit Advantage Drives the Exit
The financial case for AI over mining is direct. CoinShares estimates AI infrastructure currently generates roughly $1.5 million in profit per megawatt for these companies. By comparison, Bitcoin mining generates about $500,000 per megawatt. That three-to-one gap has been the primary driver pushing operators to redirect their power and facilities toward computing workloads.
Keel, formerly known as Bitfarms, stopped mining entirely in June 2026. IREN plans to complete its full exit from mining by end-2026. Cipher Digital is expected to leave the sector by end-2027. TeraWulf is in the process of winding down its remaining 145 megawatts of mining capacity. Each of these companies has made decisions that CoinShares says are too costly or contractually binding to unwind on the basis of a Bitcoin price recovery alone.
CoinShares said a sustained BTC price increase could still encourage some capacity expansion, but expects that investment to be concentrated among miners that have deliberately kept their models flexible. It named Riot, MARA, HIVE, and Bitdeer as examples. Those companies have not signed the kind of long-duration infrastructure deals that would prevent them from scaling mining operations back up.
Related Article: Bitcoin Hash Rate Hits Four-Month Low as Miners Pivot to AI
Mining Costs Ran Above Bitcoin's Price All Quarter
The average cash cost to produce 1 BTC reached approximately $75,500 in Q2 2026. Bitcoin ended the quarter at $58,400, meaning the majority of listed miners were operating at a cash loss for the period. The monthly average hash price, which measures the revenue generated per unit of computing power, fell to an all-time low of $27.70 per petahash per second per day in June 2026.
Conditions improved modestly after the quarter ended. Bitcoin's recovery to approximately $77,000 pushed hash price up to around $38 per petahash per second per day, moving most operators back above their cash breakeven threshold. CoinShares said those improvements are unlikely to change the calculus for companies already committed to AI infrastructure. The length and scale of the contracts already in place, rather than near-term price performance, is what CoinShares views as the decisive factor in whether those operators return to mining.
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