Bitcoin miners posted double-digit revenue declines in the second quarter of 2026 while simultaneously signing more than $70 billion in AI data center lease contracts. MARA Holdings reported Q2 revenue of $174.9 million, down 27% year-over-year; CleanSpark recorded $138.0 million, a 30.5% drop. B...
"The two agreements together bring the company's total signed capacity to 241 megawatts and roughly $9.8 billion in long-term contracted revenue." — Jason Les, CEO, Riot Platforms
Bitcoin miners posted double-digit revenue declines in the second quarter of 2026 while simultaneously signing more than $70 billion in AI data center lease contracts. MARA Holdings reported Q2 revenue of $174.9 million, down 27% year-over-year; CleanSpark recorded $138.0 million, a 30.5% drop. Both companies reported widening net losses — $611.3 million for MARA, $239.8 million for CleanSpark.
Yet hashprice — the dollar revenue earned per petahash per second of deployed capacity — climbed 20.4% in four days between August 18 and August 22, from $31.80/PH/s to $38.29/PH/s, providing temporary relief. The network hashrate, which breached 1 zettahash per second in late 2025, has since fallen back and currently hovers near 922 EH/s. Bitcoin difficulty sat just 0.7% above its 2026 low as of mid-August, with approximately 150 EH/s of capacity sidelined.
The result is a mining industry undergoing rapid identity transformation, rebranding from proof-of-work operators into AI infrastructure landlords — while the core mining business bleeds cash.
The April 2024 halving cut block subsidies from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Twenty-seven months later, the financial consequences are visible in public miner earnings.
MARA Holdings reported Q2 2026 revenue of $174.9 million, down from $238.5 million in Q2 2025. Net loss widened to $611.3 million, or $1.60 per diluted share. The company remains the fourth-largest public Bitcoin holder at 35,577 BTC (worth approximately $2.1 billion at current prices), though that treasury figure is itself down 29% from prior levels.
CleanSpark posted fiscal Q3 revenue of $138.0 million, down 30.5% from $198.6 million a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA swung to negative $113 million from positive $377.7 million. The company holds 13,924 BTC, ranking it eleventh among public holders.
Riot Platforms and CleanSpark shares dropped 6% and 5% respectively in early August after Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) sold Bitcoin and shares, indicating fragile sentiment across the mining equity complex.
The revenue declines reflect a structural, not cyclical, problem. Block subsidies are fixed at 3.125 BTC until the next halving in 2028. Transaction fees contributed just $5.14 million of the $682.69 million in total miner revenue collected in August through the 22nd — less than 1% of the total. The fee market has not compensated for the subsidy reduction.
Between August 18 and August 22, Bitcoin hashprice climbed 20.41%, from $31.80/PH/s/day to $38.29/PH/s/day. The move represented a 39% recovery from the late-June low of $27.66/PH/s/day.
The driver was price action in the underlying asset. Bitcoin surged past $75,000 on August 20, touching approximately $76,712 by August 21, after President Trump publicly urged Congress to pass the CLARITY Act. The broader crypto rally — Bitcoin gained roughly 25% over the week — lifted hashprice mechanically, as the metric is a function of BTC price, block subsidy, fees, and network difficulty.
The difficulty adjustment projected for around August 22 was expected to reduce difficulty by approximately 1%, which would marginally improve per-unit economics until the next retarget. Bitcoin's 2026 difficulty history shows ten downward adjustments versus seven increases, leaving difficulty at approximately 125.81 trillion — near the year's floor.
The hashprice improvement, while real, rests entirely on BTC price appreciation. At a hashprice of $38.29/PH/s/day, an Antminer S21 XP breaks even at approximately $0.088/kWh. An S23 Hydro has more headroom, breaking even at $0.124/kWh. Operators paying residential rates of $0.16–$0.20/kWh remain deeply unprofitable regardless of the recent spike.
Bitcoin's network hashrate crossed 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s) in late 2025, reaching a recorded high of 1.44 ZH/s in September 2025. The milestone proved unsustainable.
U.S. winter storms in early 2026 shut down significant capacity, causing a 12% hashrate drop. The network hashrate posted its first quarterly decline in six years during Q1 2026 as miners redirected power capacity to AI infrastructure. By May 2026, mining difficulty fell 2.3% and hashrate slipped back below 1 ZH/s.
As of August 22, 2026, the network operates at approximately 922 EH/s — roughly 36% below the September 2025 peak. An estimated 150 EH/s of capacity remains offline, sidelined by economics or repurposed for AI workloads.
Pool concentration data as of August 22 shows Foundry USA leading with 214.73 EH/s, followed by Antpool at 156.17 EH/s, F2Pool at 110.62 EH/s, and ViaBTC at 91.02 EH/s. A total of 133 pools contributed hashrate, though the top four control approximately 62% of network power.
The hashrate decline has not degraded network security in any measurable way — 922 EH/s still represents an enormous computational barrier to 51% attacks. But the retreat from 1 ZH/s signals that incremental mining capacity is being redirected toward higher-margin use cases.
Since the April 2024 halving, public Bitcoin miners have announced more than $70 billion in AI and high-performance computing (HPC) contracts. The three largest deals:
Riot Platforms — Anthropic: $9.1 billion. A 20-year lease at Riot's Rockdale, Texas campus for 191 MW of IT capacity. Delivery begins at 96 MW by December 2027 and reaches full buildout by June 2028. Two five-year extension options could raise the total contract value to $16.1 billion. Combined with an earlier AMD agreement, Riot's total signed capacity stands at 241 MW and approximately $9.8 billion in contracted revenue.
CleanSpark — Undisclosed Tenant: $6.6 billion. A 20-year triple-net lease at CleanSpark's Sandersville, Georgia campus for 175 MW. The tenant is described as an "investment-grade global technology company." Deliveries begin Q4 2027. CleanSpark projects approximately $330 million in average annual net operating income at margins "close to 100%" under the triple-net structure. Two extension options bring potential total value above $11 billion. The company signed this contract before securing the estimated $2.1 billion in capital required to build the facility.
Cipher Mining — AWS: $5.5 billion. A 15-year lease to provide 300 MW of capacity, including liquid cooling, at a 1-GW Texas site called Colchis. Phase one delivery began July 2026 with rent commencing August 2026. Combined with a $3 billion Fluidstack/Google arrangement, Cipher's total AI-hosting contracts reach approximately $8.5 billion.
The aggregate contracted revenue from these three deals alone exceeds $21 billion. According to industry analysis, AI and HPC could account for 70% of revenue for transformed miners by year-end 2026.
There is a gap between signed contracts and flowing cash. CleanSpark's Sandersville lease revenue has not commenced. Riot's Rockdale buildout extends to mid-2028. CleanSpark's adjusted EBITDA went negative in the most recent quarter. Market appetite for the pivot narrative has begun to weaken — CleanSpark shares fell 6% on August 21 even as Bitcoin jumped 7%. As one analysis noted, "power, cooling, and networking companies actually building out AI capacity" are increasingly seen as a cleaner exposure to the AI infrastructure theme.
The post-halving economics are unforgiving. Bitcoin mining facilities worldwide consume approximately 350 GWh of electricity daily to produce 450 BTC — roughly 128 TWh annually. That annual consumption exceeds the total electricity usage of Sweden or Norway.
Production costs per Bitcoin vary sharply by hardware and electricity rate:
| Hardware | Efficiency | Cost at $0.05/kWh | Cost at $0.07/kWh | |----------|-----------|-------------------|-------------------| | Antminer S23 Hydro | 9.5 J/TH | ~$23,000 | ~$32,000 | | Antminer S21 XP | 13.5 J/TH | ~$33,000 | ~$46,000 | | Antminer S21 (air) | 17.5 J/TH | ~$42,000 | ~$59,000 |
At Bitcoin's current price near $76,700, operators running latest-generation hardware at industrial electricity rates ($0.05–$0.07/kWh) maintain margins. Those on older equipment or higher-cost power face breakeven or loss-making conditions. The electricity-only breakeven for most mid-tier operators sits near $74,000 — uncomfortably close to the current spot price.
The breakeven period for a new mining rig exceeds 12–18 months under current conditions. Approximately 55–60% of Bitcoin mining now draws from sustainable energy sources, including hydroelectric, solar, wind, and geothermal, according to industry estimates.
The next halving, expected in 2028, will further cut subsidies to 1.5625 BTC per block. Whether the mining industry can sustain operations beyond that event depends on a significant BTC price increase, a rise in transaction fee revenue, or continued diversification into non-mining revenue streams.
Bitcoin mining in August 2026 presents two contradictory narratives running simultaneously. The short-term hashprice recovery — 20% in four days — creates the appearance of improving conditions. The underlying data does not support that reading. Revenue is declining, losses are widening, hashrate is falling, and the fee market has failed to develop as a subsidy replacement.
The AI data center pivot addresses the margin problem but introduces execution risk. CleanSpark signed a $6.6 billion lease before securing the $2.1 billion needed to build the facility. Riot's buildout extends two years into the future. The total $70-billion-plus in signed contracts represents future cash flows, not current revenue.
The mining industry's survival thesis now rests on three pillars: BTC price appreciation, successful delivery of AI infrastructure contracts, and eventual fee market maturation. As of August 2026, only the first of those three is providing material support — and it could reverse at any time.