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Struggling Bitcoin Miners Seek Deals With AI Firms
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Bitcoin miners are rushing to sign deals with artificial intelligence developers in an attempt to revive their flagging revenues by finding new customers for their vast data centers.
Cryptocurrency miners operate massive processing sites, often spanning acres of land, where they solve complex mathematical puzzles to authenticate transactions and produce digital coins. But with high energy and processing costs, and mining rewards recently halved, many are struggling to turn a profit.
Now they’re hoping to capitalize on a surge in demand for powerful but rare chips, known as graphics processing units, or GPUs, that are used in both cryptocurrency mining and AI computing. Tech companies are racing to gain access to chip giant Nvidia’s GPUs as they seek to build more capable AI systems, and they’re increasingly striking deals to let them use miners’ chips or put their own chips in miners’ data centers.
Core Scientific, one of the world’s largest bitcoin miners, is “aggressively pursuing” artificial intelligence deals, Chief Executive Adam Sullivan told the Financial Times. “It’s an incredibly important part of the business,” he added.
© Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg
The Nasdaq-listed miner, which has data centers in Texas, North Carolina and Georgia, struck a deal with AI cloud provider CoreWeave last month that the companies estimate will be worth $4.7 billion in revenue over 12 years. Nvidia-backed CoreWeave, itself a former cryptocurrency miner that turned towards artificial intelligence several years ago and saw its valuation jump to $19 billion in May, will use Core Scientific’s data centers to house its artificial intelligence chips.
AI companies require a lot of power and computing infrastructure, two things bitcoin miners typically have access to. AI groups are betting that using miners’ high-performance computing (HPC) data centers will be faster and cheaper than building their own.
Big tech companies including Microsoft, Google and Amazon have said they plan to spend tens of billions of dollars to develop data center infrastructure to support their AI ambitions. Demand for AI capabilities has also fueled investor interest in new cloud startups like CoreWeave and Lambda Labsthat focus on leasing access to GPUs.
“It [normally] “It takes 3 to 5 years to build an HPC-grade data center from scratch,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a recent note, adding that this timeline has been further extended by growing demand for artificial intelligence projects.
© Shutterstock by permission
“This energy rush highlights companies that now have access to low-cost energy,” they added.
Other large bitcoin miners are using some of their data or processing power for artificial intelligence.
US hedge fund Coatue Management, founded by “Tiger cub” fund manager Philippe Laffont, recently invested $150 million in Hut 8 to help the bitcoin miner upgrade its infrastructure to meet the needs of AI companies. The mining firm also recently created a new AI division.
Asher Genoot, chief executive of Hut 8, said the company, named after a building in Bletchley Park where mathematician Alan Turing worked during World War II, was focused on “massive demand and growth in the data center segment, driven primarily by much of the demand for artificial intelligence.”
Bitcoin miners hope that shifting their strategy toward artificial intelligence will ensure higher and more stable revenues.
Many miners, including Core Scientific, went bankrupt in 2022 after the collapse of cryptocurrency exchange FTX and the price of bitcoin plummeted below $16,000.
While cryptocurrency prices have skyrocketed since then (bitcoin hit a record high of over $73,800 in March and is now trading around $63,800), the financial rewards they can earn from mining each new bitcoin block have been cut by four years. bitcoin halving event in April. The high cost of energy and technology has also hit their profitability.
Canadian mining firm Hive is also focusing on “growing revenue from its suite of Nvidia GPU chips that power data services for the AI revolution,” the company said, while New York-based Bit Digital signed a three-year, $275 million deal in January to lease its data center space to a company building large language models.
“We understood that the halving was imminent and we thought that with margins compressed by 50 percent overnight, it didn’t always make sense to hope that the value of bitcoin would go up, it’s just not good business practice,” said Sam Tabar, CEO of Bit Digital.
“We’re just renting computing power to people who are building AI models, and we do the hardware,” he added.
However, the rush to build new data centers is electrical networks under strain in some parts of the world, given the huge power requirements of HPC. Bitcoin mining is also energy intensiveand both sectors have been criticized for the enormous amount of energy they consume.
Google’s Greenhouse Gas Emissions increased by 48 percent over the past five years, as it expands its data centers for artificial intelligence processes, while bitcoin mining consumes more energy than Pakistan or Ukraine each year, according to data from the University of Cambridge.
News
Cryptocurrency Price August 1: Bitcoin Dips Below $65K; Solana, XRP Down Up To 8%
Major cryptocurrencies fell in Thursday trading following the Federal Reserve’s decision to keep its key interest rate unchanged. Overnight, the U.S. Federal Reserve kept its key interest rate at 5.25-5.5% for the eighth consecutive time, as expected, while also signaling the possibility of a rate cut at its next meeting in September. The unanimous decision by the Federal Open Market Committee reflects a continued wait-and-see approach as it monitors inflation trends.
CoinSwitch Markets Desk said: “Bitcoin has fallen below $65,000 after the US Federal Reserve announced it would keep interest rates unchanged. However, with markets now anticipating rate cuts at the next Federal Reserve meeting in September, the outlook for a Bitcoin rally by the end of the year has strengthened.”
Meanwhile, CoinDCX research team said: “The crypto market has plunged after the Fed decision. Tomorrow’s US unemployment rate announcement is expected to induce more volatility, with the ‘actual’ figure coming in higher than the ‘expected’ one, which is positive for cryptocurrencies.”
At 12:21 pm IST, Bitcoin (BTC) was down 3.2% at $64,285, while Ethereum was down nearly 4.5% at $3,313. Meanwhile, the global market cryptocurrency The market capitalization fell 3.6% to around $2.3 trillion in the last 24 hours.
“Bitcoin needs to clear its 200-day EMA at $64,510 to consolidate further. Otherwise, a retest of $62,000 could be in the cards,” said Vikram Subburaj, CEO of Giottus.
Altcoins and meme coins, such as BNB (3%), Solana (8%), XRP (5.7%), Dogecoin (5%), Cardano (4.6%), Avalanche (4.3%), Shiba Inu (3.8%), Polkadot (3.4%), and Chainlink (4%) also saw declines.
The volume of all stablecoins is now $71.64 billion, which is 92.19% of the total cryptocurrency market volume in 24 hours, according to data available on CoinMarketCap. Bitcoin’s dominance is currently 54.99%. BTC volume in the last 24 hours increased by 23.3% to $35.7 billion.
(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, opinions and views provided by experts are personal. They do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
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Altcoins WIF, BONK, RUNE, JUP Down 10% While Bitcoin Drops 4%
Altcoins dogwifhat, Bonk, THORChain, and Jupiter have suffered losses of more than 10%, while Bitcoin is down 4% in the last 24 hours.
After a period of relative calm yesterday, July 31, Bitcoin (BTC) price action has seen a drastic change as the cryptocurrency dropped by more than $3,500, bringing its value to $63,300. At the same time, altcoins mirrored this trend, with the total value of liquidated positions rising to nearly $225 million over the course of the day.
Initially, the week started on a positive note for Bitcoin, which reached its highest point since early June, hitting $70,000. However, this peak was short-lived, as it was quickly rejected, leading to a substantial decline, with Bitcoin falling below $65,500.
The cryptocurrency managed to regain some stability, trading comfortably at around $66,800. However, following a Press conference According to Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, the value of Bitcoin has fallen again to $64,300, down more than 3% in 24 hours.
BTC Price Chart 24 Hours | Source: crypto.news
The recession coincided with a relationship from the New York Times stating that Iran had called for retaliatory measures against Israel following the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, increasing the risk of further conflict in the region.
Meanwhile, on the economic front, the Federal Reserve decided to keep its benchmark interest rates in place, offering little information on a planned September rate cut. Powell also hinted that while no concrete decisions have been made on the September adjustment, there is growing consensus that a rate cut is likely.
Amid Bitcoin’s decline, altcoins have suffered even more significant losses. For example, dogwifhat (Wife) saw a 12.4% drop and (DISGUST) has suffered a 10% drop. Other altcoins such as THORChain (RUNE) also fell by 10%, while Jupiter (JUPITER) and the Ethereum naming service (ENS) decreased by 8% and 9% respectively.
Among the largest-cap cryptocurrencies, the biggest losers are Solana (SOL) with a decrease of 8%, (Exchange rate risk) down 6%, Cardano (ADA) down 4%, and both Ethereum (ETH) and Dogecoin (DOGE) recording a decrease of 4.4%.
Data from CoinGlass indicates that approximately 67,000 traders have been negatively impacted by this increased volatility. BTC positions have seen $61.85 million in liquidations, while ETH positions have faced $61 million. In total, the value of liquidated positions stands at $225.4 million at the time of writing.
News
Riot Platforms Sees 52% Drop in Bitcoin Production in Q2
Bitcoin mining firm Riot Platforms has released its second-quarter financial results, highlighting a decline in cryptocurrency mined due to the recent halving.
Colorado-based Bitcoin (BTC) mining company Riot platforms revealed its second quarter financial results, highlighting a significant reduction in mined cryptocurrencies attributed to the recent halving event that took place in early April.
The company reported total revenue of $70 million for the quarter ended July 31, a decline of 8.7% compared to the same period in 2023. Riot Platforms attributed the revenue decline primarily to a $9.7 million decrease in engineering revenue, which was partially mitigated by a $6 million increase in Bitcoin extraction income.
During the quarter, the company mined 844 BTC, representing a decline of over 50% from Q2 2023, citing the halving event and increasing network difficulty as major factors behind the decline. Riot Platforms reported a net loss of $84.4 million, or $0.32 per share, missing Zacks Research forecast a loss of $0.16 per share.
Halving increases competitive pressure
The Colorado-based firm said the average cost of mining one BTC in the second quarter, including energy credits, rose to $25,327, a remarkable 341% increase from $5,734 per BTC in the same quarter of 2023. Despite this significant increase in production costs, the firm remains optimistic about maintaining competitiveness through recent deals.
For example, following the Recent acquisition Cryptocurrency firm Block Mining, Riot has increased its distributed hash rate forecast from 31 EH/s to 36 EH/s by the end of 2024, while also increasing its 2025 forecast from 40 EH/s to 56 EH/s.
Riot Platforms Hashrate Growth Projections by 2027 | Source: Riot Platforms
Commenting on the company’s financials, Riot CEO Jason Les said that despite the halving, the mining company still managed to achieve “significant operational growth and execution of our long-term strategy.”
“Despite this reduction in production available to all Bitcoin miners, Riot reported $70 million in revenue for the quarter and maintained strong gross margins in our core Bitcoin mining business.”
Jason Les
Following its Q2 financial report, Riot Platforms shares fell 1.74% to $10.19, according to Google Finance data. Meanwhile, the American miner continues to chase Canadian rival Bitfarms, recently acquiring an additional 10.2 million BITF shares, increasing its stake in Bitfarms to 15.9%.
As previously reported by crypto.news, Riot was the first announced a $950 million takeover bid for Bitfarms in late May, arguing that Bitfarms’ founders were not acting in the best interests of all shareholders. They said their proposal was rejected by Bitfarms’ board without substantive engagement.
In response, Bitfarms She said that Riot’s offer “significantly understates” its growth prospects. Bitfarms subsequently implemented a shareholder rights plan, also known as a “poison pill,” to protect its strategic review process from hostile takeover attempts.
News
Aave Price Increases Following Whales Accumulation and V3.1 Launch
Decentralized finance protocol Aave is seeing a significant spike in whale activity as the market looks to recover from the recent crash that pushed most altcoins into key support areas earlier this week.
July 31, Lookonchain shared details indicating that the whales had aggressively accumulated Aave (AAVE) over the past two days. According to the data, whales have withdrawn over 58,848 AAVE worth $6.47 million from exchanges during this period.
In one instance, whale address 0x9af4 withdrew 11,185 AAVE worth $1.23 million from Binance. Meanwhile, another address moved 21,619 AAVE worth over $2.38 million from the exchange and deposited the tokens into Aave.
These withdrawals follow a previous transfer of 26,044 AAVE from whale address 0xd7c5, amounting to over $2.83 million withdrawn from Binance.
AAVE price has surged over 7% in the past 24 hours amid buy-side pressure from these whales. The DeFi token is currently trading around $111 after jumping over 18% in the past week.
Recently, the price of AAVE increased by over 8% after Aave founder Marc Zeller announced a proposed fee change aimed at adopting a buyback program for AAVE tokens.
Aave v3.1 is available
The total value locked in the Aave protocol currently stands at around $22 billion. According to DeFiLlamaApproximately $19.9 billion is on Aave V3, while the V2 chain still holds approximately $1.9 billion in TVL and V1 approximately $14.6 million.
Aave Labs announced Previously, Aave V3.1 was made available on all networks with active Aave V3 instances.
V3.1 features improvements that are intended to improve the overall security of the DeFi protocol. The Aave DAO governance has approved the v3.1 improvements, which also include operational efficiency and usability for the network.
Meanwhile, Aave Labs recently outlined a ambitious roadmap for the projectwith a 2030 vision for Aave V4, among other developments.
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