Miners Sold the AI Pickaxes Before the Gold Rush Ended ⛏️

Several publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies have come under investor scrutiny after insiders and strategic shareholders cashed out of shares that had surged on AI-infrastructure pivots, according to a Monday report from Blocksbridge Consulting.

In its latest Miner Weekly newsletter, Blocksbridge said the AI narrative helped lift valuations for mining firms repositioning around data centers, power infrastructure and hyperscaler partnerships, but sentiment has since cooled. The TEM AI Infrastructure Growth Index, which tracks Bitcoin miners, AI cloud providers, power suppliers and related firms, has declined 16% over the past month, drawing focus to a series of pre-rally stock sales.

Executives at TeraWulf ($WULF), Cipher Digital, Riot Platforms ($RIOT) and Core Scientific ($CORZ) disclosed share sales, many executed under prearranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, a structure designed to avoid conflicts around nonpublic information. Blocksbridge noted the transactions are drawing heightened attention as AI-related stocks pull back. The pattern extends beyond company insiders: stablecoin issuer Tether trimmed its stake in Bitdeer ($BTDR) following that company's AI-driven rebound.

Blocksbridge pointed to TeraWulf as the clearest example of the trend. CEO Paul Prager and Beowulf E&D Holdings, an entity he manages, sold roughly 1.59 million WULF shares before the company on Monday announced a 20-year AI infrastructure lease with AI developer Anthropic, a deal viewed as a major validation of its AI strategy.

The pivot to AI infrastructure began as mining economics tightened following Bitcoin's 2024 halving ($BTC), which reduced block rewards and squeezed industry margins. An October Deloitte report described AI as a "paradox of rising investment and elusive returns," noting that many organizations expect AI investments to take longer than anticipated to produce meaningful returns, adding a separate layer of pressure on the pivoting miners.