Bitfarms, a major North American miner, announced on February 6 that it is exiting Bitcoin mining entirely, rebranding as Keel Infrastructure and shifting to HPC/AI data center development. CEO Ben Gagnon stated plainly: “We are no longer a Bitcoin company.”
Miners Lose $18,000 per Block: Hashprice Hits Record $33.31
Hashprice, the key measure of mining profitability, fell to an all-time low of $33.31 per PH on February 2, with a daily average of $34.91. According to Checkonchain, the fully-loaded cost to mine one Bitcoin now stands at roughly $87,000, while the market price hovers around $69,000, resulting in a loss of about $18,000 per coin. The industry “miner profitability sustainability index” has dropped to 21, squeezing margins for all but those with ultra-low electricity costs and efficient hardware. Payback periods have stretched beyond 1,000 days.
Texas Winter Storm Forces 40% Hashrate Drop; Foundry USA Loses 60%
Winter storm Fern hit Texas in late January, forcing many mining facilities to power down. Network hashrate plunged from a peak of 1.13 ZH/s to a low of 663 EH/s, a 40% decline. Foundry USA, the largest U.S. mining pool, lost 60% of its hashrate capacity — about 200 EH/s went offline instantly. Block intervals extended to over 12 minutes. CryptoQuant labeled the environment a “capitulation phase”. Shares of public miners like MARA Holdings and Riot Platforms dropped more than 20% that week.
Difficulty Drops 11.16%, Largest Since China’s 2021 Ban
On February 9, Bitcoin’s network underwent its largest negative difficulty adjustment since July 2021, when China banned crypto mining. The difficulty fell 11.16%, from 141.6 T to 125.86 T — the 10th largest drop in Bitcoin’s history. While lower difficulty theoretically boosts margins for surviving miners, the effect is muted by the price collapse (down over 50% from highs). Operators paying more than $0.05 per kWh or using older ASICs still face an unsustainable outlook.
Bitfarms Pivots: GPU-as-a-Service Revenue May Exceed Total Mining Earnings
Bitfarms plans to shutter all mining operations gradually between 2026 and 2027. It will invest $128 million to convert an 18 MW site into a liquid-cooled data center supporting Nvidia GB300 GPUs, targeting completion by December 2026. Gagnon estimates that transforming just one Washington state facility into a GPU-as-a-Service operation could generate more net operating income than Bitfarms has ever earned from mining in its entire history. The stock jumped 16% on the announcement.
IREN and Core Scientific: Miners Already Leading the AI Transformation
IREN (formerly Iris Energy) signed a $9.7 billion, five-year AI cloud contract with Microsoft in late 2025. By early 2026, 90% of its valuation came from AI/HPC operations, with annualized quarterly revenue expected to reach $500 million in Q1. Core Scientific has secured roughly 500 MW of HPC contracts, valued at $8.7 billion over 12 years, and is adding another 100 MW in Denton, Texas. According to Bloomberg, daily Bitcoin mining revenue has collapsed by $28 million from its peak, accelerating the exodus of miners toward AI infrastructure.