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Bitcoin mining (BTC) is incapacitated —because of difficult ‘market because power becomes real money

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Jackson Hole, Wy. -The Bitcoin miners have long been defined by the boom-and-bust rhythm of the four-year halving cycle. But the game has now changed, according to some of the most popular industry executives at the Salt Conference at the Jackson Hole earlier this week.

Increased funds exchanged exchanges, surging demand for power, and the anticipation of artificial intelligence (Ai) Reshaping infrastructure means miners should find ways to divert or risk left.

“We used to come here and talk about the hash rate,” said Matt Schultz, CEO of Cleanspark. “Now we’re talking about how to monetize megawatts.”

For many years, mining companies-derived from their main source of revenue only from Bitcoin-Na-dead mining and died of four-year Bitcoin rotation. Each twist, the rewards were slipped in half, and the miners were scrrambled to cute costs or measure to survive. But that rhythm, according to these executives, the business is no longer defined.

“The four-year cycle is effectively damaged by Bitcoin’s maturation as a strategic property, including the ETF and now the strategic wealth and not,” Schultz said. “The adoption is driving demand. If you have read anything about the latest ETF, they have consumed forever that Bitcoin is more than formed until this year.”

Cleanspark, which runs now 800 megawatts of energy infrastructure And with another 1.2 gigawatts in development, starting its attention beyond proof-of-work. “Our speed to market with electricity has created opportunities that we can look at ways to monetize power beyond bitcoin mining,” he said. “By 33 locations, we already have more flexibility than ever before.”

A brutal business

Schultz is not united in calling the massive movement of the industry to the business model.

Patrick Fleury, CFO of Terawulf, shouted emotionally and did not try to sugar the income to squeeze the miners now.

“Bitcoin mining is an incapable of a difficult business,” he said. He broke the Bitcoin mining economy in straight terms: by electricity priced at five cents per kilowatt hour, currently worth $ 60,000 to mine a single bitcoin. At a Bitcoin price of $ 115,000, this means that half of the income is consumed by power only. When corporate costs and other operating costs are -factored in, the margins are fast. In his view, the profitability of the mining hinges is almost completely securing ultra-low-cost power.

For Fleury, the deeper problem is not just electricity costs – this is the incessant expansion of the network itself, driven by hardware manufacturers with minimal incentives to slow down.

He pointed to Bitmain, which continues to produce mining rigs regardless of market demand, thanks to its direct pipeline to chipmakers such as TSMC. Although miners are not buying, the company can deploy machines themselves in regions with ultra-cheap electricity-from the US to Pakistan-flooding the network with the power of hash and driving mining difficulty. The global footprint, which includes low production costs, gives Bitmain to stay profitable while squeezing margins for everyone.

However, the terawulf is aggressive pivoting. Last week, it signed a $ 6.7 billion Deal backed-back To Google to convert the road -a megawatts of mining infrastructure in the data center space.

“These things, because everything can be proven here, like de -electric infrastructure, don’t move fast,” Fleury said. “Tech is used to move quickly and breaking things, but these deals take a long time to get together. We take four to five months of excessive diligence.”

“My best pride in that transaction is really working together with partners to come up with a new mousetrap that I hope today will be something that the industry can double with other companies,” he said. “Google provides $ 3.2 billion of obligation support for the backstop of the Terawulf, which effectively allows me to go out and secure financing at a really great capital cost.”

Profitability – or patience

Kent Draper, chief commercial officer at Iren, took a quieter but confident stance. His company is Mines of Bitcoin in earning – even today, he said. However, he taught a common denominator: power.

“Being a cheap manufacturer is fundamentally important, and that’s how we always focus our business-having control over our sites, gaining control over operating, which is in areas with low cost of constituents,” Draper said.

Iren, according to him, is currently operating at 50 exahash, translating into a billion dollars annual run run run under current Bitcoin market conditions. He noted that the company’s gross margins – the costs of the minus of electricity – standing at 75%, and even after the corporate and SG&A overhead, Iren maintains a 65% EBitda Margin, or approximately $ 650 million in annual income.

However, even Iren stopped expanding its mining. “This is actually dictated by just the opportunity set that we see on the AI side today and the potential to actually vary -the streams of income within our business are different, rather than a key perspective that bitcoin mining is no longer attractive -” Draper said.

On the AI side, Iren pursues both co-lo-locations and clouds. “The intensity of the capital is different,” Draper said. “If you have GPUs on top of the data center infrastructure, that’s 3x the investment. At the edge of the cloud, payment periods tend to be faster – in particular two years in GPU investment only.”

Holding the bitcoin – and the line

For the marathon digital (Mara) CFO Salman Khan, safety is about agility. In decades in the oil industry, Khan has seen a familiar pattern: boom, bust, integration, and continue to race to stay great.

“It reminds me of those trends in the cycle -exposed cycle industries,” Khan said. “There are some wealthy families in the oil sector that make billions -billions, and then there are others who have filed losses. You need to have a strong sheet of balance to survive these cycles.”

Marathon holds Bitcoin in its balance – something Khan said. “We’re not a Treasury company, we’re not strategies, but we want to have that fence if the price of Bitcoin rises.”

Recently, Marathon announced A Most stake in exaion. “The angle we have in front of the AI is calculated on the side,” Khan said. “We want a sovereign compute, which allows people to control their data better at a closer location with them. We like the aspect of repeating revenues with it. We also want to have one aspect of the software here, and also the aspect of the platform here.”

More than bitcoin, behind the grid

Despite the various points of view and techniques, it all decreases with one common factor: power. Whether it is used in the mine of bitcoin, power AI, or balance of electric grids, energy – not hash rates – the money of the conversation.

“We keep our energy consumption for 120 hours a year,” Schultz of Cleanspark said. “We can avoid about a third of our total energy costs. So the flexible load.”

Cleanspark, he added, spent last year quietly locking megawatts across the country. “You mentioned Georgia,” Schultz said. “We have 100 megawatts surrounding the Atlanta airport. That’s the key example. We focus on being a precious partner for some of the rural equipment to monerate stranded megawatts.”

Still about bitcoin – so far

Despite the growing focus on AI, panelists have made it clear that Bitcoin remains the center of their businesses – for now. When asked why mining companies still deserve the investor’s attention, the answers are directed at the scale, cost efficiency, and the ability to adjust.

Fleury emphasized that the contracted power capacity of the Terawulf could produce a large flow of cash, economic comparison with established data center operators. Khan pointed out a connectivity between the Marathon’s Bitcoin holders and its market appreciation, suggesting that the main mining business is unnoticed. The Draper emphasizes the efficiency of the operation of the Iren and cheap footprints, citing recent performance metrics that the company has placed ahead of other public miners.

And while the future may include cloud infrastructure and side compute, Schultz argues that Bitcoin itself can still sprout on something bigger – a layer foundation for energy systems. As he puts it down, the next stage may not be about speculation, but about the role of Bitcoin in helping the balance strength networks.

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