Public Bitcoin miners are spending billions chasing artificial intelligence and high-performance computing revenue, though returns have yet to keep pace, underscoring the massive upfront investment required to diversify beyond Bitcoin mining.In its latest Miner Weekly newsletter, BlocksBridge Consulting reported that a group of 15 Bitcoin miners and AI data-center companies spent a combined $30.7 billion on capital assets in their latest 2026 reporting periods, already 42.6% more than the $21.53 billion they spent throughout 2025.Among Bitcoin miners specifically, the gap between capital spending and AI revenue remains significant. Nine comparable miners spent $5.11 billion on capital assets during the first half of 2026 while generating just $341.2 million in directly reported AI and HPC revenue — a roughly 15-to-1 capex-to-revenue ratio.BlocksBridge calculated capital spending based on cash purchases and allocations to hardware, property, equipment and other productive assets, after accounting for proceeds and refunds from asset sales. Despite the gap, AI and HPC revenue is accelerating. The nine miners generated $205.8 million from those businesses in the second quarter, up 52% quarter-on-quarter, with Core Scientific, TeraWulf and Bitdeer among the companies reporting gains.Bitcoin miners’ capital expenditures are vastly outpacing AI and HPC revenue so far. Source: Miner WeeklyRelated: Public Bitcoin miners cut hashrate 13.4% as AI infrastructure revenue growsThe steep cost of pivoting to AIAI and data centers have been touted as a way for Bitcoin mining companies to diversify amid challenging conditions in the mining sector, but BlocksBridge’s data shows that the pivot comes with substantial upfront costs.“Power contracts and available land may give miners a starting advantage, but converting those assets into AI-ready capacity requires substations, buildings, cooling systems, networking equipment and, in some business models, GPUs,” BlocksBridge said.It remains to be seen whether Bitcoin’s latest price recovery will provide relief for companies that still maintain sizable mining operations.Bitcoin has surged more than 13% this week and climbed back above $72,000 after the US Treasury said it would at least double the maximum size of its long-term bond buybacks to $4 billion per operation, a move aimed at improving liquidity in the Treasury market that initially pushed yields lower and boosted risk appetite.In a sign of the pivot to AI and HPC, CoinShares this week announced a change in strategy for its industry tracking exchange-traded fund. Now branded the CoinShares Bitcoin Mining and Digital Power ETF (WGMI), with $222.4 million in assets under management, the fund’s universe includes 29 holdings drawn from bitcoin miners, data center operators, AI semiconductors, power generation, and HPC, which Coinshares describes as “the businesses powering the digital economy.”Related: Crypto Biz: Bitcoin’s $116M self-custody wake-up call

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Blockchain Optimism’s governance has approved a proposal to repurpose 546.9 million OP tokens previously reserved for user airdrops to support ecosystem growth and institutional adoption.OP currently has a market cap of roughly $214 million, with a circulating supply of about 2.29 billion tokens, according to CoinGecko data.The new Strategic Ecosystem Fund will support partnerships with chains, protocols and institutions, as well as incentives to increase activity and liquidity on OP Mainnet and grow OP Enterprise.The decision drew pushback from some delegates who argued the tokens had been promised to users and questioned how the foundation would measure returns from the fund. Supporters said the allocation would be better used to compete for enterprise deals and drive growth.Optimism vote to repurpose 546.9M OP. Source: OptimismOptimism said it has no additional airdrops planned after distributing 269.1 million OP across five rounds, contending that airdrops were better suited to an earlier phase focused on broad user acquisition than its current institutional push.Optimism is an Ethereum (ETH) scaling project behind OP Mainnet and the OP Stack, the blockchain framework used by networks including Base, Unichain, Kraken’s Ink and Sony’s Soneium. More than 30 OP Stack chains currently contribute revenue to Optimism, according to the project.OP rebounds 11% but remains 93% below record highOP traded around $0.09 on Thursday, up roughly 11% over the past 24 hours amid a broader crypto market rally. Despite the rebound, the token remains more than 93% below its all-time high.At OP’s current price, the 546.9 million-token allocation is worth around $50 million, equivalent to nearly a quarter of the token’s roughly $211 million market capitalization.Source: CoinGeckoIn July, Cointelegraph reported that the blockchain had signed a a memorandum of understanding with Viva Republica, the operator of South Korea-based mobile money transfer app Toss, to on a three-month proof-of-concept to test a Korean won-based stablecoin infrastructure for institutional payments.Magazine: MiCA cracks down on USDT in Europe… but no one else caresCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.