Bitcoin Miners Now Derive a Third of Revenue From AI Hosting

Bitcoin miners now earn roughly one third of their revenue from hosting Artificial Intelligence (AI) customers, and that share could reach half by the end of 2026. Alexandre Schmidt, an equity index manager at CoinShares, published that estimate in a commentary on November 9. The figure marks a structural shift in an industry that once lived and died by the price of a single asset, and it raises a question that now sits at the center of crypto market structure: does AI revenue let miners hold their Bitcoin, or does the AI build-out force them to sell even more of it?

The early evidence points to continued selling. MARA Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) sold 13,597 Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) after September 30, according to its most recent shareholder letter. Bitcoin trades at $73,227, down 12% over 30 days and 2% below its 30-day low of $74,740 recorded on November 8, so miners are liquidating into a falling market rather than a rising one.

How much of miner revenue is AI now?

CoinShares tracks how much listed miners earn by renting out their power and data centers to AI and High-Performance Computing (HPC) clients. HPC refers to large-scale computing tasks, such as training AI models. The investor thesis behind the pivot is straightforward: stable lease payments from AI tenants could cover power costs, which would remove the need to sell newly mined coins and would, in theory, reduce Bitcoin's market supply.

Schmidt sees AI pulling in the opposite direction for now. "The recent sell-off in Bitcoin miners was driven less by Bitcoin than by AI," he wrote about miner stocks. That assessment aligns with recent market behavior. Some mining stocks have rallied even as Bitcoin fell below $75,000, suggesting investors are repricing these companies as data center operators rather than as leveraged Bitcoin proxies.

HIVE Digital Technologies (NASDAQ:HIVE) shows how fast the transition is moving. Its HPC revenue surged 70.7% to $8.8 million in its fiscal second quarter. In August, HIVE's chief executive described the company's revenue split as "10% AI and 90% Bitcoin mining," heading toward 40% AI and 60% mining. That trajectory, if sustained, would put HIVE ahead of even the sector-wide pace that CoinShares projects.

What do miner filings show about Bitcoin sales?

Financial statements from several miners show that Bitcoin sales are financing the expansion into AI, not being replaced by it.

• Bitdeer Technologies (NASDAQ:BTDR) mined 3,855 BTC in the third quarter, up sharply from 1,109 BTC a year earlier, yet held only 47 BTC — about $3.4 million — at the end of September, down from 2,029 BTC a year prior.
• Bitdeer reported a net loss of $125.5 million on $320.7 million in revenue while building an AI Cloud backlog worth approximately $2.9 billion. A backlog is contracted work that has not been billed yet, which means expenses arrive before income.
• Hyperscale Data (AMEX:GPUS) sold its remaining 212 BTC at around $76,000 each for approximately $16 million, directing the funds to debt repayment and a new AI data center in Michigan.
• MARA sold Bitcoin to clear $750 million in Bitcoin-backed loans.
• Other major miners have sold most of their stacks or disclosed large sales, including Hut 8, which reported a sale of 3,102 Bitcoin.

The pattern is consistent across the sector. Cash leaves the balance sheet today to build facilities whose revenue arrives over years. Bitcoin, the most liquid asset most of these companies own, bridges the gap.

Why don't on-chain trackers show all the selling?

On-chain miner trackers miss part of this activity, which complicates any outside analysis of miner supply. These tools track coins leaving a miner's wallet, but most trades happen on exchange order books and over-the-counter desks and never touch the blockchain in a way trackers can attribute. A quiet blockchain could therefore mean one of two things: buyers are absorbing miner coins out of public view, or trading volume is genuinely muted. Either reading matters for anyone trying to estimate the sell pressure flowing from miners into the broader market.

Could a difficulty drop slow the selling?

A few miners have held on longer than their peers. MARA still held 34,012 Bitcoin at the end of September, before its sale of 13,597 coins, and its chief financial officer has said: "Bitcoin is a strategic asset for us, and we're utilizing it methodically." CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) has financed its data center build through bond debt and sold almost no Bitcoin in September, though it has stopped providing monthly updates, so outsiders now see its treasury only once a quarter.

Mining economics may also improve in the near term. Mining difficulty sets how hard it is to mine a block, and mempool.space estimates a drop of about 7.1% at the next adjustment — deeper than the 6.4% drop expected on November 9. A drop means some machines have switched off, which would let the remaining miners earn more coins per machine. That margin matters while Bitcoin trades below its estimated $78,000 production cost, a level at which mining itself loses money on many operations.

Will miners keep selling their Bitcoin?

Yes, by the weight of the current evidence, Bitcoin miners look set to continue selling through the coming quarters. The need for cash to build AI data centers arises before tenants begin paying rent, making Bitcoin sales the simplest source of financing. Bitdeer's 47 BTC stack shows the trend most plainly: a company that mines thousands of coins per quarter now holds almost none. A bigger AI revenue share mostly changes what miners spend their coins on, not whether they sell them.

Two developments could overturn that view. First, if upcoming quarterly filings from MARA and Bitdeer show Bitcoin holdings rising instead of falling, the financing logic would be breaking down. Second, if Bitcoin rebounds above its 50-day average of $81,641 — about 11% higher than the current price and close to MARA's reported $81,039 sale price — miners would earn more per coin and may feel less urgency to sell.

Until one of those triggers arrives, the market should expect the AI build-out to keep feeding Bitcoin supply, with the next quarterly filings from MARA and Bitdeer serving as the clearest test of whether the sector's treasury strategy has genuinely changed.