- BTC ended June at $58,400, while miners averaged $75,500 in production costs.
- Core Scientific paid $41.9M to cancel rig orders as miners pivot to AI data centers.
- AI infrastructure yields $1.5M per megawatt yearly, tripling Bitcoin mining profits.
Bitcoin mining is competing more and more with AI for large amounts of reliable electricity.
CoinShares’ Q2 2026 Bitcoin Mining report shows that this rivalry is now changing how public mining companies operate. Some are shutting down mining and pouring billions into AI and high-performance computing instead.
According to the report, Bitcoin finished June at $58,400, but for publicly listed miners, the average cost (before taxes) of producing one BTC was around $75,500. Meanwhile, the average hash price in June, which is essentially what miners earn per unit of computing power, hit an all-time low of $27.70 per PH/s per day.
CoinShares found a big range in profitability among miners, where some were still spending more to mine than they made from selling Bitcoin, while others managed to stay profitable.
Some Miners Are Paying to Stop Mining
Core Scientific paid $41.9 million to cancel a deal for 15 EH/s of next-gen mining rigs. The company says it’s mostly keeping its remaining miners running just to meet power contract requirements while it converts its facilities.
Keel went even further as it shut down Bitcoin mining completely on June 29 and expects no mining revenue at all in Q3. Another company, IREN, said its transition from mining toward AI should be mostly done by the end of 2026, and its AI cloud revenue had already beaten mining revenue last quarter.
At least 35 EH/s of mining power is set to leave the public mining space as IREN and Cipher wrap up their departures.
Real Asset May Be the Power Connection
The math gets a lot more interesting when the facilities themselves are taken into account. CoinShares estimates that AI infrastructure can bring in about $1.5 million in yearly profit per megawatt, versus roughly $500,000 per megawatt for Bitcoin mining.
At the same time, it’s gotten a lot harder to get new power capacity for data centers.
CoinShares points to about 2,600 GW of projects waiting in the US interconnection queue (more than the entire country currently has installed), with typical waits of more than five years. Additionally, it was reported that data centers make up 87% of ERCOT’s (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) 410 GW large-load queue.
Interestingly, that shortage is breathing new life into energized mining sites, as having an existing grid connection is becoming increasingly valuable.
A recent deal priced three fully leased AI facilities in Northern Virginia at approximately $27 million per megawatt, while similar powered but empty capacity held by some public miners goes for less than $3 million per megawatt.
Still, that doesn’t mean any old mining site can just flip into an AI data center. CoinShares puts the cost of upgrading to AI-grade at about $8 million to $15 million per megawatt, versus roughly $700,000 to $1 million per megawatt for mining gear.
Related: AI Shift Reshapes Bitcoin Mining as Hashrate Declines
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