Main Bitcoin Miner Sells $305 Million Value of Crypto to Fund Pivot to AI

Over the weekend, bitcoin miner Cango bought 4,451 bitcoin for round $305 million. According to a company press release, the sale was accomplished to partially pay down a bitcoin-collateralized mortgage. Moreover, the sale is claimed to strengthen the corporate’s steadiness sheet, cut back monetary leverage, and, notably, present the capability for an enlargement into AI infrastructure.

Notably, the sale comes after the bitcoin price was basically cut in half from its October all-time high when it hit around $125,000; nonetheless, Cango additionally made it clear that they’re nonetheless dedicated to their bitcoin mining operations, regardless of the extra enlargement into AI. The corporate says the transaction was settled in Tether’s USDT stablecoin.

Cango is way from the primary bitcoin mining firm to get entangled with the AI knowledge middle trade. Whereas the chips utilized in bitcoin mining are made particularly for hashing the SHA-256 algorithm and should not relevant to the AI trade, the fundamental, real-world infrastructure constructed round these machines is similar to what is required for AI, particularly when it comes to entry to a considerable amount of low-cost electrical energy that can be utilized to energy any pc {hardware} all day lengthy.

A number of the different bitcoin mining corporations which have already expanded into the realm of AI include IREN, Core Scientific, and Riot Platforms. And sure, some bitcoin mining corporations have certainly deserted the crypto asset utterly in the hunt for AI-focused earnings.

It’s generally tough to inform when a publicly-traded firm is pivoting to a brand new know-how for enterprise causes or to market its inventory to retail consumers. The latest mentions of AI in press releases from every kind of various corporations traded on the inventory market are harking back to the same “blockchain” phenomenon of 2017 and 2018, the place everybody from iced tea companies to camera manufacturer Kodak was touting the revolutionary points of blockchain know-how that will revitalize their corporations. There are undoubtedly a minimum of a handful of corporations that have been pivoting to blockchain again then that at the moment are touting their new AI capabilities. However as already talked about, there are additionally clear causes an enlargement into AI is more likely to make enterprise sense for these already concerned with bitcoin mining.

Bitcoin’s latest worth decline has had a direct impression on the very asset that miners generate with their {hardware} and related power prices, though the latest snowstorm that ran by a lot of the nation turned out to be fairly worthwhile for many who have curtailment offers for selling electricity back to the grid when everyone seems to be staying dwelling and utilizing their warmth. In the meantime, other bitcoin mining startups are looking at ways to integrate machines into home heating equipment as a strategy to offset the prices of local weather management.

In fact, the opposite facet of this sale that’s fascinating is that Cango is paying down a leveraged place on Bitcoin at a time when the value has been in a downward spiral. Many corporations have taken on bitcoin as a long-term reserve asset of their treasuries over the previous couple of years, in order that the sale of round $305 million price of bitcoin from such a treasury is notable from that perspective.

There are worries that deleveraging occasions with a few of the bigger digital asset treasury (DAT) corporations that leverage debt of their methods, specifically bitcoin treasury firm Technique, might result in a downward loss of life spiral for the bitcoin worth; nonetheless, Technique just lately stated that the value must drop to $8,000 for actual considerations concerning their steadiness sheet to pop up. That stated, Strategy saw massive unrealized losses of $17 billion in the last quarter of 2025, and a separate DAT focused on Ethereum is already coping with $7.5 billion in unrealized losses lower than a 12 months since its authentic launch.

Some DAT executives on the latest Digital Property at Duke occasion have indicated they will climate the latest worth turmoil, as their success or failure shall be measured over for much longer timeframes. However it’s additionally price remembering that not all DAT corporations are created and managed equally.