April 18, 2026 ChainGPT

Alarm: Bitcoin Miners' AI Pivot Could Slash Mining Revenue from 90% to 30% in 2–3 Years

Alarm: Bitcoin Miners' AI Pivot Could Slash Mining Revenue from 90% to 30% in 2–3 Years
Capriole Investments founder Charles Edwards is sounding the alarm: the wave of Bitcoin miners pivoting into AI compute could shrink mining-derived Bitcoin revenue sharply—potentially from about 90% today to just 30% within 2–3 years. In a recent post on X, Edwards laid out the transition underway among public Bitcoin mining firms. A compiled table of these companies shows that virtually all have announced moves into the AI business, but most are still in early stages: on average AI currently accounts for only about 13% of their revenue, leaving BTC mining as the dominant income source for now. That balance looks set to change quickly. According to the targets disclosed by these miners, many aim for AI to represent the majority of their revenue by 2027–2028. Edwards summarizes the shift bluntly: “On average current Bitcoin revenue is expected to drop from 90% to just 30% in the next 2–3 years!” The market has noticed. Firms that have laid out plans to derive 80%+ of revenue from AI have enjoyed the strongest stock performance—Edwards says those stocks climbed over 500% on average. By contrast, companies targeting less than 60% AI revenue saw only a tenth of that growth, and many posted negative returns over the past two years. The implications go beyond corporate earnings. Bitcoin’s security depends on the hashing power devoted to mining, and a substantial redeployment of energy and hardware toward AI could weaken that security budget. Blockchain.com data shows the Bitcoin network hashrate has declined in recent months, though it’s not clear whether that’s a direct result of the AI pivot or mainly a reaction to the pullback in Bitcoin’s price. Even if the AI shift hasn’t yet decisively altered the network, the revenue projections and strategic targets suggest a significant reorientation is underway. “Bitcoin used to be famed for having the biggest computing network in the world,” Edwards wrote. “It’s now collapsing into AI at record pace.” At the time of writing, Bitcoin traded around $76,200, up about 5.5% over the past seven days—though how ongoing miner diversification will affect price, network security and the competitive landscape of both crypto and AI infrastructure remains an open question. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news