Public Bitcoin miners are increasingly shutting down mining operations as power and data-center capacity become more valuable for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing tenants. The shift is no longer limited to partial diversification: some listed companies are now leaving hashing altogether.

CoinShares said Keel, formerly Bitfarms, became the first listed Bitcoin miner to reach zero hashrate after switching off its remaining mining sites on June 29. The company is expected to report no mining revenue in the third quarter, underscoring how quickly parts of the sector are moving away from Bitcoin production.

Keel becomes the clearest example of a full exit

Keel shut down its last operating sites at Panther Creek, Scrubgrass and Sharon on June 29, after previously closing Moses Lake in April. With those closures, the Nasdaq-listed company fully exited Bitcoin mining and is set to book zero mining revenue in the third quarter.

The wind-down came with a steep accounting impact. Keel’s gross margin fell to negative 285% for the quarter as retired mining rigs were depreciated rapidly. The company also sold 1,085 BTC for about $75 million at an average price of $69,100, and said it plans to liquidate its remaining 1,861 BTC before the end of the year.

Other miners are paying to leave or planning a phased withdrawal

Keel is not the only listed miner stepping back. Core Scientific reportedly paid Block’s Proto division $41.9 million to cancel roughly 15 exahashes per second of next-generation 3-nanometer mining chips, hardware described in the report as the most efficient yet built. Core Scientific’s gross margin from self-mining was down 56%, and management said its remaining machines are being run mainly to satisfy power contracts while sites are converted.

Cipher Digital has also signaled a retreat. The company told investors it does not expect to spend on mining capital expenditures and anticipates leaving the mining business by the end of 2027.

AI colocation is raising the value of existing mining sites

The attraction for miners is the revenue available from AI and HPC infrastructure. Hyperscale Data turned off Bitcoin miners at its Dowagiac, Michigan facility on September 1 so the site could be prepared for an AI colocation customer. The agreement covers 20 megawatts with an unnamed California neocloud provider and is valued at more than $1.2 billion over ten years.

The contract could rise to as much as $3 billion if the customer exercises an option for another 32 megawatts. Chief executive William Horne said shutting down Bitcoin mining would allow the company to dedicate the site’s power and infrastructure to the incoming tenant.

Mining economics have deteriorated as hashrate slips

CoinShares said the weighted-average ex-tax cash cost to mine one Bitcoin was around $75,500 in the second quarter, while Bitcoin ended that period at $58,400. In the fourth quarter of 2025, the mining cost was about $79,995, with Bitcoin trading between $68,000 and $70,000, leaving operators roughly $19,000 underwater per coin by that measure.

At the same time, public miners have sold more than 15,000 BTC since their treasury holdings peaked. Network activity has also softened: average monthly hashrate fell from about 1,066 EH/s in the first quarter to 1,004 EH/s in the second and 940 EH/s in the third, a 6.3% quarterly decline and about 12% below the December 2025 peak.

The shift is broadening, but not every miner is leaving

According to the report, more than $70 billion in AI and HPC contracts has been announced across the sector, including IREN’s $9.7 billion Microsoft deal, an Anthropic agreement valued at roughly $19 billion, and more than $14 billion in expected contract revenue for Core Scientific. The report also said data-center restrictions and moratoriums in some states have increased the value of sites that already have power access and permits.

Even so, the move away from mining is not universal. Bitdeer chief strategy officer Haris Basit said the company plans to continue mining alongside a 16-year Anthropic compute deal, using a dual-purpose model in which flexible mining capacity fills gaps around contracted AI demand. That suggests the next phase for the sector may split between miners that fully convert and those that try to operate both businesses in parallel.

Source: Cryptopolitan