Crypto Shifts: SEC Eases Staking Rules as Bitcoin Miners Turn to AI

Regulatory Clarity and Market Adaptation in the Digital Asset Industry

As U.S. regulators continue to provide clarity for the digital asset industry, key players are adapting to new economic realities. This evolving landscape is marked by strategic shifts and innovative approaches across various sectors within the crypto ecosystem.

Bitcoin Miners Diversify into AI

Bitcoin miners are aggressively diversifying their operations into the booming artificial intelligence (AI) sector to create new revenue streams. This move comes as a response to reduced block rewards from the 2024 halving and rising operational costs. By repurposing their energy-intensive infrastructure, miners are tapping into the high-performance computing (HPC) market, which is essential for AI development.

Landmark Deals

Core Scientific, which emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in early 2024, exemplifies this trend. In June 2024, the company signed a 12-year, $3.5 billion contract with AI cloud company CoreWeave to provide computing infrastructure. This deal boosted investor confidence and led to renewed acquisition talks from CoreWeave.

Hybrid Models

Other miners are adding AI as a secondary revenue stream. Hut8 launched a GPU-as-a-Service subsidiary using Nvidia H100 chips while remaining dedicated to bitcoin mining. Hive Digital saw its AI and HPC hosting revenue triple to $10.1 million in FY25, nearly 9% of its total revenue.

Preparing for the Future

Industry leaders Riot Platforms and MARA Holdings are also strategically planning for AI integration, though they have yet to report significant revenue from AI contracts.

The Outlier

In a countermove, mining hardware firm Canaan closed its AI chip division in July to renew its focus on its primary business of designing ASICs for bitcoin mining.

Public Companies Race to Build Solana Treasuries

A growing number of public firms are purchasing Solana (SOL) to capitalize on staking rewards. Bitcoin miner Bit Mining recently made its first purchase of 27,191 SOL for $4.5 million to launch a validator node. Brand management company Upexi increased its holdings to over 2 million SOL and reported that its staked tokens are earning an 8% yield, or roughly $65,000 a day in revenue. According to CoinGecko, the trend is growing, with the top four public holders now controlling over 3.5 million SOL.

Galaxy CEO Comments on the Crypto Treasury Rush

Offering a counterpoint to the rush, Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz said on a Q2 earnings call that the trend of crypto treasury companies has likely reached its peak. “The question now is which of the existing companies become monsters,” Novogratz stated, suggesting new entrants will “have a harder time getting oxygen.”

Other Crypto News

A potential Bitcoin supply shock may be looming as over-the-counter desk balances fall to around 155,000 BTC, according to onchain analysis conducted by Glassnode. This comes as large buyers like MicroStrategy continue to acquire significant amounts of BTC from these very desks, with the company acquiring 182,391 BTC this year alone.

The government of Indonesia is exploring a national Bitcoin reserve strategy. Bitcoin Indonesia, an advocacy group, said it met with the VP’s office to discuss using the country’s abundant geothermal and hydroelectric resources for a state-backed mining and reserve initiative.

Price Action

As of the time of writing, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $115,001.50, while Ethereum (ETH) was $3,629.17.