BlackRock warns Bitcoin could be sidelined as AI grabs investor attention
Robbie Mitchnick, head of digital assets at BlackRock, says artificial intelligence is dominating capital flows and leaving non-AI assets — including Bitcoin — under intense scrutiny. According to Mitchnick, investors are increasingly favoring assets tied to AI, and anything perceived as unrelated risks being viewed as “old-world” and redundant.
“It’s been a tough stretch for Bitcoin since last October for all of crypto. And that’s consistent in many ways with just about everything that is not AI-centric. The AI momentum is certainly sucking a lot of the oxygen out of the room,” Mitchnick said, underlining how the AI boom has reshaped investment priorities.
Key points from Mitchnick’s warning
- Since the start of 2025, large pools of capital have flowed into AI-centric assets, he said.
- AI-focused equities have outperformed Bitcoin in 2026, despite some capital expenditure headwinds in the AI industry.
- Future allocations will hinge on whether assets are linked to AI; those that are not will face “severe scrutiny.”
The trend is already visible in mining industry behaviour. Several Bitcoin miners — including Core Scientific, IREN, HIVE Digital and TeraWulf — have pivoted away from pure BTC mining toward supplying energy to AI data centers. These firms have inked multi-billion-dollar power contracts, prioritizing energy services for AI workloads because they can be more profitable than crypto mining.
Why this matters for Bitcoin
If miners continue to divert capacity and capital to support AI infrastructure, Bitcoin could face slower network growth and reduced mining investment over time. Mitchnick warns that, as AI continues to attract the lion’s share of new capital, assets not tied to the technology may be left behind — a dynamic that could pose a long-term challenge for Bitcoin’s market position.
Bottom line: BlackRock’s digital-assets lead sees AI as the dominant thematic shaping capital flows today. Bitcoin — and other non-AI-centric assets — will need to adapt or risk losing investor attention as the AI-led allocation wave gains steam.
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