Bitcoin Miners Are Fleeing to AI: So Why Is the Hash Rate Surging?
Some of the largest publicly traded BTC miners are reducing manufacturing and redirecting energy towards the extremely standard, more and more concentrated sector of synthetic intelligence (AI), or, if President Trump’s demand comes to fruition, maybe we should always name it super-intelligence.
Interestingly, the community’s hash fee has rebounded sharply from its summer season lows and now sits lower than 9% beneath its all-time high, suggesting that different operators are shortly filling the hole.
5 Big Names Are Dropping Out
CryptoQuant’s newest report shared with CryptoPotato discovered that 5 main listed miners, particularly IREN, Core Scientific, Bitfarms, TeraWulf, and Cipher, have shifted towards AI and high-performance computing and produced 47% fewer BTC this yr than throughout the similar interval in 2025. In bitcoin phrases, their manufacturing fell from 13,263 final yr to 7,075 models.
Production at IREN, Core Scientific, and TeraWulf fell by over 50% every, whereas Bitfarms’ manufacturing fell 49%. Cipher’s manufacturing decreased by the smallest share at simply 18%. In distinction, these firms have introduced greater than $50 billion price of AI and HPC leases.
IREN, for instance, has a $9.7 billion contract with Microsoft and expects its mining fleet to be successfully decommissioned by year-end. Core Scientific has leased massive quantities of energy to CoreWeave and AMD, whereas TeraWulf, Cipher, and others have dedicated infrastructure to AI clients.
As we not too long ago reported, the similar business transformation was evident for months, together with mining shares being valued as energy and AI-infrastructure performs reasonably than pure Bitcoin companies.
Hash Rate Is Still Recovering
Although all of the above sounds fairly unfavorable for the broader Bitcoin ecosystem, particularly the community well being, the precise information reveals that the hash fee has been climbing onerous recently. The metric had dumped by over 18% from its November 2025 peak to beneath 900 EH/s on August 6, which was its deepest drawdown since the 2021 Chinese mining ban.
However, it has rebounded by 11.7% in the following months, with greater than half of that restoration occurring throughout the first three weeks of October.
CryptoQuant defined that the hash fee is fungible. While no less than 35 EH/s is estimated to be leaving with the aforementioned firms, the general Bitcoin community has added 105 EH/s since the August low. New-generation machines operated by personal miners, sovereign-backed operations, and non-US firms are changing the capability being retired.
Miners who had stayed inside the Bitcoin ecosystem have regained floor as nicely. MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, HIVE, and American Bitcoin elevated mixed output by 16% year-over-year, serving to offset some losses from their AI-transitioning friends.
Miner situations have additionally improved with BTC’s value restoration from beneath $60,000 to over $80,000. Miner revenues have rebounded sharply, and excessive outflows have disappeared, lowering the stress on operators to promote BTC simply to cowl bills.
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