"Miners surrender, AI is here to stay" Bitfarms announces exit from Bitcoin mining! Mining difficulty drops the most since 2021

Bitcoin mining is experiencing the harshest winter since the 2022 bear market. Hashprice has fallen to a record low of $33.31 per PH, with the total cost to mine one BTC (about $87,000) nearly 20% above the market price. The entire network hash rate has plummeted by 40%, and on February 9, the difficulty saw its largest adjustment since China’s ban in 2021, decreasing by 11%.

(Background: Severe cold in the U.S. impacts Bitcoin mining! Miners cooperate with power restrictions, and Foundry USA’s hash rate drops 60%.)

(Additional context: Tether releases open-source Bitcoin mining system MiningOS, free, with no backdoors or third-party dependencies.)

Table of Contents

• Hash/price hits all-time low: losing $18,000 per mined coin
• Texas blizzard + miner capitulation
• Largest drop since China ban in 2021
• Bitfarms says it is no longer a Bitcoin company
• IREN and Core Scientific: models of miner transformation

Since hitting a high of $126,000 in October 2025, Bitcoin’s price has fallen over 50%, currently hovering around $67,000. This crash is rewriting the survival rules for the mining industry, as mining costs far exceed coin prices, forcing miners into survival mode.

Hash/price hits all-time low: losing $18,000 per mined coin

On February 2, Bitcoin’s Hashprice dropped to a historic low of $33.31 per PH/s/day, with a daily minimum of $34.91. This key indicator measures miners’ profitability, meaning each PH of hash power yields less than $35 daily.

More grimly, according to Checkonchain data, the average total cost to produce one Bitcoin across the network is about $87,000, while the market price is only around $69,000. Mining one coin results in a loss of approximately $18,000—this is the first such large cost inversion since the 2022 bear market.

The industry “Miner Profitability Index” has fallen to 21, indicating that except for a few operators with low electricity costs (below $0.05 per kWh) and high-efficiency mining rigs, most miners’ profit margins have been completely squeezed, with payback periods soaring over 1,000 days.

Texas blizzard + miner capitulation

Adding to the woes, Texas—North America’s mining hub—was hit by the winter storm “Ferne” at the end of January. To ensure grid stability, many mining farms were forced to shut down or reduce power.

During the storm, the network hash rate plunged from a peak of 1.13 ZH/s to a low of 663 EH/s—a 40% drop. The largest U.S. mining pool, Foundry USA, lost up to 60% of its hash rate, about 200 EH/s going offline instantly. Block times extended beyond 12 minutes.

CryptoQuant labels this phase as “Capitulation,” characterized by rapid shutdown of old-generation rigs and a clear contraction of total network hash rate. As a result, publicly traded miners like MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms saw their stock prices drop over 20% this week, with capital flowing into more stable traditional assets like gold.

Largest drop since China ban in 2021

On February 9, Bitcoin’s network experienced a historic difficulty adjustment—reducing by 11.16%, from 141.6 T to 125.86 T. This is the largest negative adjustment since China’s comprehensive ban on crypto mining in July 2021, and the 10th largest in Bitcoin history.

Difficulty reduction theoretically helps miners restore profitability, as less competition means the same hash power can mine more coins. However, given the sharp drop in coin prices (halved from recent highs), the benefit is limited. For companies with high electricity costs (above $0.05 per kWh) or using older hardware, this adjustment cannot prevent widespread shutdowns.

Bitfarms says it is no longer a Bitcoin company

Faced with the mining winter, some choose to persist, others to pivot dramatically.

On February 6, former North American major miner Bitfarms announced it is “completely exiting Bitcoin mining” and plans to rebrand as “Keel Infrastructure,” relocating its legal registration from Canada to the U.S., and changing its ticker from BITF to KEEL.

CEO Ben Gagnon stated, “We are no longer a Bitcoin company.” He said the firm will fully transition into developing and operating HPC/AI data center infrastructure. He estimates that converting a single mining farm in Washington State into GPU-as-a-Service could generate net operating income that surpasses all of Bitfarms’ historical mining revenue.

The company plans to gradually shut down all mining operations between 2026 and 2027, investing $128 million to convert an 18 MW farm into an advanced liquid-cooled data center supporting Nvidia GB300 GPUs, expected to be completed by December 2026. Following the announcement, Bitfarms’ stock surged 16%.

IREN and Core Scientific: models of miner transformation

Bitfarms is not alone. Leading miners are actively shifting into AI.

IREN (formerly Iris Energy) exemplifies this transformation. Once a pure Bitcoin miner, by late 2025 it signed a $9.7 billion, five-year AI cloud contract with Microsoft, establishing itself as a major AI infrastructure player.

By early 2026, around 90% of IREN’s valuation comes from AI/HPC businesses, with quarterly revenue projected to reach $500 million in Q1. The company aims to expand its GPU fleet to 140,000 units by the end of 2026.

Core Scientific is also aggressively repositioning. It has signed about 500 MW of HPC contracts worth up to $8.7 billion over 12 years, and is expanding an additional 100 MW in Denton, Texas.

Moreover, Bloomberg reports that Bitcoin’s daily mining revenue has plummeted from its peak of $28 million, further accelerating the industry’s “vote with your feet” shift toward AI and other sectors.