November Profit Crisis Forces 70% of Top Bitcoin Miners into $20B AI Pivot

2025-12-05 06:41:36

November 2025 delivered one of the harshest profitability squeezes in Bitcoin mining history, with hashprice collapsing below $35 per petahash and all-in sustaining costs for many operators now exceeding $80,000 per BTC. The result? A dramatic industry pivot: 70% of publicly traded miners have shifted significant capacity to AI and high-performance computing (HPC), collectively raising $6 billion in fresh capital and locking in $15.5 billion of GPU supply contracts to chase the exploding $20 billion AI data-center market.

The Numbers Behind the Crisis

Metric	October 2025	November 2025	Change
Average hashprice	$58/PH/day	$34/PH/day	−41%
Network difficulty	95 T	115 T	+21%
Avg. all-in cost per BTC	~$62k	~$82k	+32%
Payback period (new ASICs)	~420 days	>1,200 days	3× longer
BTC price (monthly avg)	$91,400	$88,700	−3%

With post-halving rewards still at 3.125 BTC per block and energy prices spiking in key regions (Texas ERCOT >$120/MWh during peak), pure-play Bitcoin mining became structurally unprofitable for the majority of fleets.

The Great AI Pivot: Who’s In and How Big

70% of top 15 public miners now derive 15–65% of revenue from AI/HPC colocation or owned GPU clusters.
$6 billion raised in equity/convertible debt since September 2025 (MARA $1.9B, Riot $1.4B, CleanSpark $1.1B, Iren $850M, etc.).
$15.5 billion in committed Nvidia/AMD GPU purchases through 2027 — equivalent to ~25% of global H100/H200 supply.
Core Scientific leads with 65% of revenue now from AI (900 MW HPC contracts).
MARA signed the largest single deal: 45,000 H100s for delivery 2026–2027.

Bitcoin Holdings: Miners Refuse to Sell

Despite the squeeze, top miners continue hoarding:

Miner	BTC Held	Value (Dec 5)	% of Total Supply
MARA	53,250	$5.6 billion	#1 public holder
Riot	18,692	$1.96 billion
CleanSpark	13,108	$1.38 billion
Total Top 10	>120,000	>$12.6 billion

Why AI Suddenly Makes More Sense

Revenue Stream	Avg.$/kW/month (2025)	Contract Length	Capex Recovery
Bitcoin mining	$40–70	Month-to-month	18–36 months
AI/HPC colocation	$250–450	3–7 years	6–12 months

A single megawatt repurposed from mining to AI can generate 5–10× higher EBITDA with dramatically lower volatility.

Bottom Line

November 2025 will be remembered as the month Bitcoin mining stopped being a pure-play industry.

With 70% of the sector now dual-purposed and tens of billions committed to GPUs, the line between “Bitcoin miner” and “AI data-center operator” has effectively vanished. The survivors aren’t just hedging — they’re building entirely new, higher-margin businesses on the same power contracts that once powered ASICs.

For Bitcoin itself, this pivot means dramatically reduced sell pressure from miners (good for price) at the exact moment the network needs every satoshi held tightly into the next halving cycle.

The great mining migration is complete. The machines still hum — they’re just training models now.

BTC-2.59%

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