AI Revenue Rises, but Bitcoin Miners Keep Selling Coins

By Sophie Lindqvist

CoinShares estimates that AI hosting now supplies about one-third of listed Bitcoin miners’ revenue and could reach 50% by the end of 2026.

Equity index manager Alexandre Schmidt made the estimate in a Nov. 9, 2026 commentary. The forecast describes a market in transition, not a completed business-model shift.

Miners still sell. MARA Holdings (NASDAQ: MARA) sold 13,597 Bitcoin (BTC) after Sept. 30, according to its latest shareholder letter.

Bitcoin traded at $73,227 when the report was published on Nov. 10, 2026. The price stood 12% lower over 30 days and 2% below the Nov. 8 30-day low of $74,740.

How much of miner revenue comes from AI?

CoinShares tracks listed miners that rent power and data-center capacity to AI and high-performance computing customers. Investors often assume those leases will cover power costs and provide stable payments.

Under that thesis, miners can retain newly mined coins, reducing exchange supply. HPC means large-scale computing, including AI-model training.

Schmidt sees a different near-term effect. “The recent sell-off in Bitcoin miners was driven less by Bitcoin than by AI,” he wrote.

A linked Nov. 8 market report said Bitdeer and Riot jumped 13% in one day while Bitcoin traded below $75,000. The report cites this divergence, but it does not isolate AI revenue as the cause of each share move.

HIVE Digital Technologies (NASDAQ: HIVE) reported HPC revenue up 70.7% to $8.8 million in its fiscal second quarter. In August, its CEO described the mix as “10% AI and 90% Bitcoin mining,” heading toward 40% AI and 60% mining.

How are Bitcoin sales funding AI expansion?

Bitdeer Technologies (NASDAQ: BTDR) mined 3,855 BTC in the third quarter, up from 1,109 BTC a year earlier. Yet it held only 47 BTC, worth about $3.4 million, at Sept. 30, down from 2,029 BTC one year earlier.

The company reported a $125.5 million net loss on $320.7 million in revenue. Its AI Cloud backlog stood at about $2.9 billion, but backlog means contracted work that has not been billed, so costs can arrive before income.

The report names no accelerator, process node, wafer size, chip supplier or installed AI capacity. It therefore offers no basis for translating the $2.9 billion backlog into unit shipments, wafer demand or computing capacity.

Construction also pulls in power and cooling suppliers. The report does not quantify their orders, so the commercial scale remains less certain than the headline backlog.

• Hyperscale Data (AMEX: GPUS) sold its remaining 212 BTC at roughly $76,000 each, raising about $16 million. It used the proceeds for debt repayment and a new AI data center in Michigan.
• MARA Holdings sold Bitcoin to clear $750 million of Bitcoin-backed loans.
• Hut 8 sold 3,102 BTC, while other major miners sold most of their stacks or disclosed large sales.

Can on-chain trackers show the selling?

No. Public trackers record coins leaving miner wallets, but many trades occur on exchange order books and over-the-counter desks without appearing on the blockchain.

A quiet chain can therefore mean buyers absorbed miner coins privately, or that exchange trading volume stayed muted. Neither reading proves that miners retained their holdings.

Which miners are holding?

MARA still held 34,012 BTC at Sept. 30 before selling 13,597 coins. Its CFO described Bitcoin as a strategic asset and said the company was using it methodically.

CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) financed its data-center build through bond debt and sold almost no Bitcoin in September. It has stopped monthly treasury updates, leaving outsiders with a quarterly view of its holdings.

The divergence reflects both strategy and a disclosure gap. Investors cannot treat every missing on-chain movement as a retained coin.

Can mining economics ease the pressure?

Mempool.space estimates Bitcoin mining difficulty will fall 7.1% at the next adjustment. That forecast exceeds the 6.4% drop expected on Nov. 9.

A decline suggests some machines have switched off, potentially allowing remaining miners to earn more coins per machine. Bitcoin at $73,227 remains below an estimated $78,000 production cost, so lower difficulty alone does not guarantee profitable operations.

Will miners keep selling Bitcoin?

The source expects continued sales over the coming quarters. AI construction requires cash before tenants begin paying rent. That timing makes Bitcoin sales the simplest financing source.

Its conclusion is blunt: a larger AI revenue share mostly changes what miners spend their coins on, not whether they sell them.

The key caveat is the direction of future treasury disclosures. If MARA and Bitdeer report rising Bitcoin holdings in coming quarterly filings, that would weaken the case for sales driven by capital needs.

Bitcoin also needs a price recovery. Its 50-day average stands at $81,641, about 11% above the $73,227 price and close to MARA’s $81,039 sale price.

Until the filings or price change, expect miners to keep converting Bitcoin into AI capacity. A move above $81,641 could reduce selling pressure, but the available data establishes no such recovery.