Crypto Mining Index Jumps 13.89% as Miners Convert Power Into AI Contracts

The PRISM Emerging Crypto Mining Index closed Thursday at $202.74, up 13.89% on the day and 102.74% since its January 2024 inception. Nineteen of the index’s twenty constituents finished higher, and twelve gained more than 15%.

Bitcoin barely moved

The rally did not come from the underlying asset. Bitcoin traded near $64,856, up about 0.55% over 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data cited by Crypto Times. Miner equities ran far ahead of that. Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) led the index at 27.34%, followed by Bitdeer (NASDAQ: BTDR) at 27.02%, IREN (NASDAQ: IREN) at 26.17%, Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) at 22.89%, CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) at 21.07%, and Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) at 20.56%.

The contracts arrived first

The move follows a run of disclosures that reframed these companies as compute landlords rather than bitcoin producers.

Core Scientific reported second quarter colocation revenue of $136.7 million, up from $77.5 million in the first quarter and $10.6 million a year earlier. The company announced a partnership with AMD (NASDAQ: AMD) with the potential to support up to 2.5 gigawatts of leasable capacity, anchored by 15-year agreements covering roughly 530 megawatts across five sites. Core Scientific said total leased customer power now stands near 1.1 gigawatts, and that it was billing for 437 megawatts as of mid-July.

IREN raised its year-end AI Cloud annualized run-rate revenue target from $3.7 billion to more than $4 billion, and said roughly 85% of that figure is under contract. The company disclosed $2.8 billion in new multi-year cloud contracts and named Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), Perplexity, and Figure AI among its customers. Contracts carry a weighted average term of about four years.

Bitdeer reported AI Cloud annualized recurring revenue near $76 million at 95% utilization for June, alongside bitcoin production of 990 coins, up 388% year over year.

A reported liquidation supplied the trigger

The Block reported Thursday that Situational Awareness, the fund run by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner, had liquidated its public equity portfolio. The fund held all six of the session’s largest movers as of March 31. Shares climbed after the report rather than falling.

The buildout is expensive

None of this capacity is free. Core Scientific spent $797.5 million on capital expenditures in the quarter. Cipher priced $810 million of 6.000% senior secured notes due 2031 in June through a subsidiary, using proceeds to finance its Stingray data center and fund debt service reserves. Core Scientific also posted a second quarter net loss of $1.16 billion, which the company attributed primarily to a non-cash change in the fair value of warrants tied to its own share appreciation.

The inception spread separates them

TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) has gained 671.30% since January 2024, Core Scientific 531.50%, Cipher Mining 445.28%, and IREN 443.82%. Over the same period Marathon Digital (NASDAQ: MARA) has fallen 48.43%, HIVE Digital (NASDAQ: HIVE) 64.92%, and Bit Digital (NASDAQ: BTBT) 63.25%. Thursday lifted nearly the whole index. The two-and-a-half-year record does not.

Three reports land next week

Cipher will release second quarter results and a business update before markets open on Tuesday, August 4. TeraWulf reports August 5 and Marathon Digital August 6.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation to buy or sell any security. Readers should conduct their own due diligence.