Bitcoin Miners Are Ditching BTC for AI – Here's Why That Matters

When Bitcoin Believers Stop Believing

Bitdeer (BTDR), a Singapore-based bitcoin mining company, just did something that would make MicroStrategy's Michael Saylor cringe: it sold every single bitcoin it owned. As of February 20, the company's BTC treasury stands at zero.

This isn't just bookkeeping. Bitdeer mined 189.8 BTC in its latest weekly update and immediately sold the lot. No hodling, no "diamond hands," no treating bitcoin as digital gold. Just pure conversion to cash.

The AI Gold Rush Beats the Bitcoin One

The math is simple: AI infrastructure pays better than bitcoin speculation. Bitdeer recently raised $325 million through convertible notes and another $43.5 million in equity specifically to fund datacenter expansion and AI cloud growth.

While bitcoin mining revenue swings with price cycles and halvings, AI and HPC contracts offer something miners desperately want: predictable income streams. The company is already deploying NVIDIA GB200 systems in Malaysia and converting multiple US and European sites from crypto mining to AI datacenters.

The Domino Effect Across Mining

Bitdeer isn't alone in this pivot. Riot Platforms (RIOT) sold $200 million worth of bitcoin to fund AI expansion. Bitfarms (BITF) is dropping its "bitcoin company" identity entirely, doubling down on US AI operations. MARA Holdings (MARA) is expanding into HPC through a planned 64% stake in France-based Exaion.

The pattern is clear: miners want to be valued as digital infrastructure companies, not leveraged bitcoin proxies.

What This Means for Bitcoin

When companies that literally create bitcoin start selling it all to chase AI profits, what does that say about bitcoin's long-term value proposition? Bitdeer's operational metrics remain strong – January mining output hit 668 BTC, up 430% year-over-year. But they're treating that production as working capital, not treasure.