Bitcoin miners are accelerating their pivot toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing as Bitcoin’s hashprice — the expected daily revenue per unit of hashrate — plunged to an all-time low of $39 per petahash per day, according to Hashrate Index data.
The metric, which serves as a key profitability gauge for miners, has collapsed from over $100/PH/day at the start of 2024, squeezed by the April halving, rising network difficulty, and stagnant Bitcoin prices. Public miners including Core Scientific, Hut 8, and Hive Digital have accelerated data center conversions, repurposing their energy infrastructure and fiber-connected sites for AI workloads that command significantly higher revenue per megawatt.
Core Scientific’s 12-year, 200-megawatt contract with CoreWeave — valued at $3.5 billion over the initial term — has become the template. Hut 8 secured a $150 million investment from Coatue Management to build AI infrastructure, while Hive Digital is converting its 100-megawatt Paraguay facility for HPC workloads.
Analysts at JPMorgan estimate AI compute can generate $3–5 million per megawatt annually versus roughly $300,000 for Bitcoin mining at current hashprice levels. The divergence has triggered a strategic bifurcation: miners with premium energy contracts and grid interconnection are pivoting, while those with higher-cost power face consolidation or shutdown.
Bitcoin’s hashrate, meanwhile, continues climbing toward 700 exahash per second, suggesting remaining miners are deploying more efficient hardware even as margins compress. The network’s difficulty adjustment mechanism ensures blocks continue producing every ten minutes regardless of participant count, but the economic shakeout is accelerating the industry’s structural transformation from pure-play mining to diversified compute infrastructure providers.
Source: Cointelegraph
