ChainCatcher reported that the Hyperliquid Policy Center (HPC) has released a new study arguing that perpetual futures widen hedging choices and improve price discovery. The report says it found no statistically significant evidence that perpetuals damage benchmark futures markets. HPC describes perpetuals and dated futures as complementary rather than zero-sum substitutes. The study compares 205 Bitcoin trading weekends and 19 weekend samples of on-chain crude perpetuals (xyz:CL), using the natural experiment created by traditional markets closing over the weekend while perpetual markets keep trading. HPC says dated futures require forced calendar roll costs, while perpetual positions do not face that obligation. It also cites a crude oil weekend repricing case from the week of March 6, 2026, saying a $10 million position’s loss could have been reduced from about $1.58 million to about $62,000, including all costs, through an on-chain crude perpetual hedge.

BlocksBridge Consulting said 15 Bitcoin miners and AI data-center companies spent $30.7 billion on capital assets in their latest 2026 reporting periods, up 42.6% from the $21.53 billion they spent in all of 2025. Among nine comparable miners, first-half 2026 capex reached $5.11 billion, while directly reported AI and HPC revenue totaled just $341.2 million, a roughly 15-to-1 ratio. The report says the shift into AI and high-performance computing brings heavy upfront costs, even as quarterly revenue from those businesses is rising. Separately, CoinShares renamed its industry-tracking ETF and expanded its universe to 29 holdings tied to miners, data centers, semiconductors, power generation and HPC.

Nine publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies generated a combined $341 million in revenue from artificial intelligence and high-performance computing operations in the first half of 2026, according to Techub News, citing Cointelegraph. The same group spent more than $5 billion on related capital assets over the period. That leaves capital expenditure far above the revenue produced by those AI and HPC businesses. The figures point to a sharp gap between current income and the scale of infrastructure investment made by these miners as they expand beyond core Bitcoin mining operations. The report did not disclose a company-by-company breakdown in the brief.

Bitcoin mining companies that have moved into artificial intelligence and high-performance computing are drawing richer valuations as pressure on mining economics continues. According to BlockBeats, falling bitcoin prices and weaker mining profitability have pushed more listed miners to look for steadier revenue streams through AI and HPC contracts. Over the past year, TerraWulf, IREN and Cipher Digital more than doubled in share price, while MARA Holdings, which shifted to AI later than peers, fell about 40% over the same period. Mining economics also deteriorated sharply: hashprice dropped from about $63 per PH/s in July last year to roughly $31.8 per PH/s, while Bitcoin network hashrate declined from 1.14 ZH/s to around 900 EH/s, a drop of about 21%. CoinShares said that, as of the first quarter of 2026, miners with AI/HPC contracts traded at an average enterprise value multiple of about 12.3x, compared with 5.9x for pure bitcoin miners. The industry had also signed roughly $70 billion in cumulative AI/HPC contracts. Riot Platforms added to that trend last week by signing a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic valued at about $9.1 billion. CoinShares also said a recovery in pure bitcoin mining remains possible if bitcoin returns to its roughly $126,000 record high from last October.

According to MarsBit's market analysis, Bitcoin mining companies are collectively pivoting toward AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure builds. However, the valuation enthusiasm that accompanied this shift is now cooling on Wall Street. Investors are shifting their focus to hard evidence: actual revenue contributions, project delivery capabilities, and cash flow generation. The ongoing earnings season has brought this divergence into sharp relief. Core Scientific and TeraWulf have advanced far enough that AI-related business now dominates their revenue. In contrast, MARA and CleanSpark remain in the construction phase, having yet to record any income from their AI ventures. The market's yardstick for measuring the success of this transformation is moving away from narrative-driven speculation and toward verifiable, quantitative metrics. The title itself asks a pointed question: who is swimming naked when the tide of hype recedes? In other words, as the sector matures, companies will be judged solely on execution and financial discipline. MarsBit's analysis highlights that the reporting season is a critical checkpoint for distinguishing between miners with real AI revenue and those still relying on promises. The key takeaway: while the mining-to-AI pivot continues, the market is now rewarding only concrete progress and penalizing those who lack tangible results. This analysis touches on the key developments that are determining which miners are genuinely building substantial businesses and which are still living on promises.

Bitcoin miners MARA Holdings and CleanSpark both posted double-digit year-over-year revenue declines in their latest quarterly results, even as they step up investment in high-performance computing (HPC) and AI infrastructure. MARA reported second-quarter revenue of $174.9 million, a 27% drop from the same period last year. CleanSpark generated $138 million in fiscal third-quarter revenue, down 30.5% year over year. The two companies continue to pour resources into HPC as the AI sector expands and Bitcoin mining difficulty keeps rising. MARA said it plans to acquire power and data center assets to expand AI computing capacity, with the potential to reach a 4.8 GW power portfolio. CleanSpark said it already controls more than 1.8 GW of power, land, and data center resources. At the latest count, MARA holds around 35,577 BTC and CleanSpark holds about 13,924 BTC, placing them fourth and eleventh among public companies by Bitcoin holdings. The revenue declines highlight the financial strain across large-scale Bitcoin mining operations, and both firms are responding by building out infrastructure that can serve AI workloads in addition to mining.

Bitcoin miner PowerCompute, formerly LM Funding America, has completed an $18 million debt refinancing, according to Globenewswire. The transaction is backed by 307 BTC held in the company’s inventory and replaces several existing loans on its balance sheet. Those include an $11 million loan from Galaxy Digital, a $5 million loan tied to the acquisition of a 15 MW facility in Oklahoma, and a $2 million loan used to acquire an 11 MW facility in Mississippi. The company said the refinancing is intended to support a broader push beyond its core bitcoin mining business. Specifically, PowerCompute plans to expand into high-performance computing, or HPC, and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The deal reshapes the company’s existing debt structure while linking part of its financing directly to its bitcoin holdings.

TeraWulf reported Q2 2026 revenue of $44.767 million, with HPC leasing contributing $31.932 million, or roughly 71% of total revenue. The company has 102 MW of revenue-generating IT capacity live at its Lake Mariner site in New York, with 336 MW under construction. It closed the acquisition of Kentucky's Muskie Data Campus, securing up to 1 GW of power, and signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic for about 401 MW at its Justified campus, with an initial contract value of roughly $19 billion. TeraWulf also agreed to sell its 50.1% stake in the Abernathy JV for $530 million in cash and reaffirmed its annual target of 250-500 MW of newly contracted IT capacity.