Bitcoin miners pour billions into AI – but the pivot could leave them regretting it within a year

Bitcoin miners are redirecting billions of dollars and scarce power capacity toward artificial intelligence as BTC’s downturn pushes mining profitability close to historic lows.Data from CryptoSlate shows Bitcoin trading around $64,000, nearly 50% below its October peak, while elevated network competition and weak transaction fees continue to squeeze miner revenue.Those pressures have made AI infrastructure increasingly attractive because data-center customers can pay substantially more for reliable electricity and long-term capacity, giving miners another way to monetize power assets that are becoming less profitable when devoted solely to Bitcoin.Some of the industry’s largest operators are already converting facilities, signing multi-year computing contracts and, in some cases, pulling back from investment in new Bitcoin mining equipment.However, André Dragosch, head of research at Bitwise Europe, told CryptoSlate that miners may be making that shift at the wrong point in the cycle.He argues that expectations for AI compute demand, including demand generated by autonomous agents, could take longer to materialize than current investment implies. At the same time, he believes Bitc...