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Bitcoin miners invest millions in the AI ​​business and seek billions in return

BlockChainBulletin Staff

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Bitcoin miners invest millions in the AI ​​business and seek billions in return

Core Scientific’s 104-megawatt Bitcoin mining data center in Marble, North Carolina

Carey McKelvey

AUSTIN — For five years, bitcoin miner Scientific core it is quietly diversifying from mining into artificial intelligence, a market that will require immense amounts of power to handle training AI models and the enormous workloads that come with it.

The move is no longer a secret.

On Monday, Core Scientific announced a 12-year agreement with cloud services provider CoreWeave to provide infrastructure for use cases such as machine learning. Core Scientific said the deal, which expands the existing partnership between the two companies, will add more than $3.5 billion in revenue over the life of the contract.

CoreWeave, supported by Nvidia, rents graphics processing units (GPUs), which are necessary for training and running AI models. CoreWeave has been evaluated $19 billion in a funding round last month. Core Scientific will provide approximately 200 megawatts of infrastructure to CoreWeave operations.

Core Scientific, which emerged from bankruptcy in January, has been mining a mix of digital assets since 2017. The company began diversifying into other services in 2019.

“The best way to think about bitcoin mining facilities is that we are essentially energy shells for the data center industry,” Adam Sullivan, CEO of Core Scientific, told CNBC.

Sullivan stepped into the CEO role while the company was still in the throes of bankruptcy, a consequence of bitcoin’s collapse in 2022. Since then, the former investment banker has paid off debts to angry lenders and further strengthened the non-financial strategy. the company’s bitcoin. business when it re-entered the public market.

Although Core has grown more than 40% since its relisting earlier this year, its market capitalization of about $865 million is significantly smaller than Core’s. its valuation of $4.3 billion in July 2021.

Demand for AI computing and infrastructure surged after OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT in November 2022, triggering a wave of investment in AI models and startups. Meanwhile, Core Scientific and other miners such as Bit Digital, Hive, Hut 8 and TeraWulf have sought to bolster their revenue streams after the so-called bitcoin halving in April cut the rewards paid to bitcoin miners by 50%.

Many have adapted their huge facilities to meet market needs.

“Bitcoin miners, often stationed in secure, energy-intensive data centers, also find these facilities ideal for AI operations,” said James Butterfill, head of research at digital asset firm CoinShares.

Butterfill said the overlap is leading to competition for shelf space between bitcoin mining and artificial intelligence businesses. Although AI operations require up to 20 times the capital expenditure of bitcoin mining, they are more profitable, according to a CoinShares report.

“The introduction of AI businesses leads to increased depreciation and amortization, which can increase gross profit margins,” Butterfill said.

According to CoinShares, Bit Digital derives 27% of its revenue from artificial intelligence. Hut 8 generates 6% of its sales from artificial intelligence, and Hive, which has data centers in Canada and Sweden, gets 4% of its revenue from these services.

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Hut 8 said in his first quarter earnings report that it purchased its first batch of 1,000 Nvidia GPUs and secured a customer deal with a venture-backed AI cloud platform as part of its expansion into new technologies that offer higher returns.

“We have finalized commercial agreements for our new AI vertical under a GPU-as-a-service model, including a customer agreement that provides fixed infrastructure payments plus revenue sharing,” said Asher Genoot, CEO of Hut 8.

Genoot added that the company expects to start generating revenue in the second half of the year at an annual rate of about $20 million.

A little digital it had 251 servers actively generating revenue since its first AI contract at the end of April, and the company said it earned about $4.1 million in revenue from the operation that month.

Iris Energy expects to generate between $14 million and $17 million in annual revenue from its AI cloud services. Core Scientific’s expanded agreement with CoreWeave is expected to produce annual revenue of $290 million.

Large-scale bitcoin miners compete head-on with AI companies for power: Marathon Digital CEO

“While we intend to remain one of the largest and most productive bitcoin miners, we expect to have a diversified business model and more predictable cash flows,” Sullivan said.

Bitcoin’s volatility has made mining a challenging activity.

While bitcoin is currently up more than 150% over the past year to around $69,000, the 2022 bear market has sent many miners into bankruptcy or forced them to shut down altogether.

Complicated transition to artificial intelligence

Moving to artificial intelligence is not as simple as reorienting existing infrastructure and machines, because the requirements of High Performance Computing (HPC) data centers are different, as are the needs of the data network.

“Other than transformers, substations, and some switchgear, nearly all of the infrastructure that miners currently have would have to be demolished and built from scratch to accommodate HPC,” Needham analysts wrote in a May 30 report.

The rigs used to mine bitcoin are called application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs). They are built specifically for cryptocurrency mining and cannot be used to do other things.

Needham estimates that HPC data centers operate between $8 and $10 million per megawatt in capex, excluding GPUs, while bitcoin mining sites typically operate between $300,000 and $800,000 per megawatt in capex, excluding ASICs .

Core’s Sullivan says there is a lot of synergy between the two businesses.

“One of the most interesting aspects of the bitcoin mining business is that we have access to large amounts of energy throughout the United States thanks to access to fiber lines,” he said.

In addition to the partnership with CoreWeave, Core Scientific also announced that over the next three to four years it will work to convert 500 megawatts of its bitcoin mining infrastructure across the country into HPC data centers.

Sullivan said the adjustment is manageable because the company owns and controls all of its data center infrastructure.

“There are components we need to purchase to upgrade to HPC, but they are things we can acquire easily,” he said.

All eyes are on artificial intelligence at SXSW

Over the next year or two, Needham analysts estimate that large, publicly traded bitcoin miners are expected to more than double energy capacity, including plans to expand their mining and HPC businesses.

Clean energy is a popular choice because it is the cheapest energy source in many markets. Large-scale miners compete in a low-margin industry, where their only variable cost is typically energy, so they are incentivized to migrate to the world’s cheapest energy sources. A industry report estimates that the bitcoin network is powered by 54.5% sustainable electricity.

THE Estimates from the Electric Power Research Institute that data centers could absorb up to 9% of the country’s total electricity consumption by 2030, up from about 4% in 2023. Harnessing nuclear power is seen by many as the answer to meeting that demand.

TeraWulf powers its mining sites with nuclear energy and is looking to get into machine learning. So far, the company has two megawatts dedicated to HPC capacity, although it has plans to transition its power infrastructure to AI and HPC.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told CNBC last year who is a firm believer in going nuclear when it comes to meeting the needs of AI workloads.

“I don’t see a way to get there without nuclear,” Altman said. “I mean, maybe we could get there with just solar energy and storage. But from my perspective, I feel like this is the most likely and best way to get there.”

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Cryptocurrency Price August 1: Bitcoin Dips Below $65K; Solana, XRP Down Up To 8%

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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%

BlockChainBulletin Staff

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Altcoins WIF, BONK, RUNE and JUP drop 10% as Bitcoin recedes 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.

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Riot Platforms Sees 52% Drop in Bitcoin Production in Q2

BlockChainBulletin Staff

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Riot Platforms posts 52% decrease in Bitcoin production for 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.

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Aave Price Increases Following Whales Accumulation and V3.1 Launch

BlockChainBulletin Staff

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Aave price surges amid whale 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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