{"id":95210,"date":"2026-03-13T16:47:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-13T13:47:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/?p=95210"},"modified":"2026-03-13T17:58:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T14:58:04","slug":"wintermute-declares-traditional-bitcoin-mining-model-obsolete","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wintermute-declares-traditional-bitcoin-mining-model-obsolete\/","title":{"rendered":"Wintermute Declares Traditional Bitcoin Mining Model Obsolete"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin miners are widely encountering losses due to declining profitability. To survive, they must either switch to AI hosting or learn to manage bitcoin reserves as working capital, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wintermute.com\/insights\/views\/opinions\/epoch-5-a-structurally-different-btc-mining-cycle\">Wintermute<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Structural Crisis in the Business Model<\/h2>\n<p>For the first time in a four-year cycle, digital gold has not yielded double profits, which usually offset the decline in income after the <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-the-bitcoin-halving\">halving<\/a>. The peak gross margin coincided with levels previously characteristic of a bear market bottom.<\/p>\n<p>Fees are unable to cover costs\u2014they account for about 1% of the companies&#8217; total revenue. Miners also continue to face consistently high energy costs.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-276736\" src=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/img-762937ce9a3a3a9c-8625926716678034.webp\" alt=\"image\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Daily transaction fees for miners and the share of fees in their total income. Source: Wintermute.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Passive Holding as a Legacy of the HODL Era<\/h2>\n<p>According to Wintermute, miners collectively control about 1% of the total bitcoin supply. Analysts call this the &#8220;legacy of the HODL era,&#8221; noting that the full arsenal of treasury management remains practically unused.<\/p>\n<p>Traditionally, tools for generating income in the crypto market were limited to <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/what-is-staking-and-how-to-make-money-from-it\">staking<\/a> and the DeFi sector. However, experts have proposed a broader toolkit for miners:<\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>monetizing market risk through derivatives;<\/li>\n<li>selling covered call options;<\/li>\n<li>cash-secured put options;<\/li>\n<li>passive placement in credit protocols for interest.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\"><p><em>&#8220;Active balance management is the most underestimated lever for miners. Those who turn bitcoin from a passive reserve into a working asset will gain a structural advantage by the next halving,&#8221; Wintermute believes.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Artificial Intelligence<\/h2>\n<p>An alternative is artificial intelligence. Mining companies have spent years building energy infrastructure in regions with cheap electricity. As a result, they have become owners of a resource critically needed by the AI industry and which cannot be quickly created from scratch.<\/p>\n<p>The shift to renting capacities for neural networks <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/falling-revenues-push-bitcoin-miners-to-swap-crypto-treasuries-for-ai-infrastructure\">has already begun<\/a>. In March, Core Scientific <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/core-scientific-to-sell-2537-btc\">announced<\/a> the sale of all its bitcoins and <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/core-scientific-secures-500-million-from-morgan-stanley-for-ai-transition\">secured<\/a> a $500 million loan from Morgan Stanley. The firm will allocate most of the proceeds to re-equip data centers for AI needs.<\/p>\n<p>Other players, including <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/riot-platforms-sells-1080-btc-to-expand-in-ai\">Riot Platforms,<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-miner-mara-completes-acquisition-of-ai-infrastructure-provider-exaion\">MARA Holdings<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/terawulf-to-raise-500-million-for-texas-data-center-construction\">Terawulf<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/bitcoin-miner-cango-sells-4451-btc-and-announces-ai-expansion\">Cango<\/a>, and many others, have previously taken similar steps.<\/p>\n<p>Wintermute emphasized that reorienting towards artificial intelligence requires radical steps and significant capital. For many, this may prove insurmountable. However, experts consider the ongoing changes a &#8220;healthy shake-up&#8221; that will ultimately make the industry more efficient.<\/p>\n<p>In March, the head of digital assets at VanEck, Matthew Sigel, <a href=\"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/news\/vaneck-bitcoin-miners-strike-gold-amid-ai-energy-shortage\">stated<\/a> that reorienting towards AI makes mining companies&#8217; stocks more attractive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Bitcoin miners must switch to AI hosting or manage reserves as working capital, Wintermute suggests.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"select":"1","news_style_id":"1","cryptorium_level":"","_short_excerpt_text":"Bitcoin miners must adapt to AI hosting or manage reserves as capital, says Wintermute.","creation_source":"ai_translated","_metatest_mainpost_news_update":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[18,1137,1138,1149],"class_list":["post-95210","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-bitcoin","tag-cryptocurrency-mining","tag-opinions","tag-wintermute"],"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"views":"195","promo_type":"1","layout_type":"1","short_excerpt":"Bitcoin miners must adapt to AI hosting or manage reserves as capital, says Wintermute.","is_update":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95210","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95210"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95210\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95216,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95210\/revisions\/95216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95210"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95210"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forklog.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95210"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}