Bitmain Antminer S23e Hyd 2U hydro-cooled Bitcoin ASIC miner, illustrating mining efficiency as miners exit the stress zone

Bitcoin Miners Exit Stress Zone as Big Players Pivot to AI

Two stories landed this week that look unrelated but matter together. CryptoQuant's weekly report says Bitcoin miners have left the financial "stress zone" they were in from May to August. In the same week, two of the best-known public miners, TeraWulf and IREN, made it clearer that their future megawatts are going to AI and high-performance computing, not to more Bitcoin ASICs. Here is what it means if you run machines yourself.

What CryptoQuant reported

According to CryptoQuant's October 8 weekly report, as covered by CryptoSlate and BlockBeats:

  • Revenue: total daily miner revenue (subsidy plus fees) rose from about $27 million at the July low to about $48 million, a 78% increase, as Bitcoin recovered roughly 45% from $58,000 to above $83,000.
  • Hashrate: network hashrate recovered from 899 EH/s on July 31 to about 962 EH/s. The drawdown from the peak narrowed from 18% to 13%.
  • Profitability band: CryptoQuant's miner profit/loss indicator moved from "extremely underpaid" (May to August) to "fairly paid" from August 21 onward.
  • Selling pressure: no extreme miner outflows have been recorded since August 21. Balances in wallets holding 100 to 1,000 BTC have been stable at about 51,000 BTC since early September, after falling about 20% from December 2025.

CryptoSlate also cites Hashrate Index data showing hashprice briefly above $40 per PH/s per day, its highest since January, before easing to around $39. CoinShares had put hashprice near $27.70 in June.

The weak spot: fees

The seven-day average of daily fees rose from about $195,000 to $275,000, but that is still well below the $400,000 to $800,000 seen during parts of 2025. In plain terms, the recovery is almost entirely a price-and-subsidy story. Fees are not yet a cushion.

The other half: big miners are moving power to AI

On October 5, TeraWulf announced an amended agreement with Kentucky Power, executed October 1, that doubles contracted capacity at its Muskie Data Campus from 500 MW to 1 GW. The second 500 MW phase moves from 2030 to 2029, subject to Kentucky Public Service Commission approval. Kentucky Power's release adds that TeraWulf would fund $100 million in winter bill credits for residential customers over ten years. The campus is planned for AI and high-performance computing.

Separately, TokenPost reports that IREN began decommissioning Bitcoin mining hardware during its fiscal year ended June 30 and aims to substantially complete the move to AI cloud services by December 31. IREN's installed mining capacity was about 23.2 EH/s using roughly 380 MW. TeraWulf mined 179 BTC in the June quarter, down from 485 BTC a year earlier.

What this means for miners

1. Some hashrate may leave, but don't count on it

IREN's 23.2 EH/s is about 2.4% of the roughly 962 EH/s CryptoQuant cites. If that fleet goes dark, everyone else's share of each block rises slightly. But decommissioned ASICs are often resold and switched on elsewhere, and other operators are adding machines at the same time. The network itself is still growing in the short term: as of the afternoon of October 9 (Dubai time), mempool.space estimated the next retarget at block 971,712, around October 16, at roughly +4.3%. Other trackers put it between about +3.8% and +4.7%. The last adjustment, on October 3, was essentially flat at -0.03% to 132.72T, per ASIC.tools.

2. Power is the scarce input, and AI is bidding for it

When a listed miner can sign a 1 GW contract for AI workloads, it tells you what grid capacity is worth to other buyers. For smaller miners, the practical effect is more competition for hosting space, sites and utility interconnections. If you have a stable power contract, it matters more than the machine you put on it.

3. Efficiency decides who stays online

With fees thin and revenue tied to price and the 3.125 BTC subsidy, the miners that ride out the next squeeze are the ones with the lowest cost per terahash. The next halving, at block 1,050,000, is roughly 80,000 blocks away (about 18 months at ten-minute blocks) and will cut the subsidy in half again. Fleets planned today should be sized for that, not for this week's hashprice. Dense hydro-cooled units such as the Bitmain Antminer S23e Hyd 2U (865Th/s) and MicroBT WhatsMiner M7DS (680Th/s) pack more hashrate into each megawatt and each rack. Browse the full Hydro Cooled range or every Bitcoin SHA-256 miner we carry.

4. Re-run your numbers after the retarget

A difficulty rise of about 4% cuts expected BTC per TH/s by about the same amount, all else equal. Plug the confirmed number into your model after October 16. Our guide to calculating Bitcoin mining profitability in Canada walks through the formula.

Sources

Not financial advice. This article is for information only. It is not investment advice and makes no prediction about prices or mining returns. Mining results depend on your power costs, hardware, uptime and network conditions.

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