Keel Infrastructure, formerly known as Bitfarms, has shut down all of its US bitcoin mining operations and liquidated 1,085 BTC for $75 million between April and August 2026, according to its second-quarter earnings report. The company is converting its mining sites into high-performance computing data centers for artificial intelligence workloads, marking one of the most significant exits from crypto mining by a publicly traded operator.

Why Are Bitcoin Miners Abandoning Crypto for AI?

Keel's decision reflects a broader industry trend where bitcoin miners are reallocating capital and infrastructure toward AI and high-performance computing contracts. The company reported $30 million in revenue for the second quarter of 2026, down 50 percent year over year, and posted a $141 million operating loss. The revenue decline was attributed to weaker bitcoin prices and the closure of its Moses Lake mining facility in April.

Across the listed mining sector, the economics have become increasingly challenging. The weighted-average cash cost to mine a single bitcoin reached approximately $79,995 in the fourth quarter of 2025, while bitcoin prices ranged between $68,000 and $70,000, meaning miners were losing around $19,000 on each coin produced. This profitability squeeze has accelerated the pivot away from mining.

"Power is the constraint. Everything else is downstream of it," said Ben Gagnon, Keel's Chief Executive Officer.

Ben Gagnon, Chief Executive Officer at Keel Infrastructure

Gagnon emphasized that Keel structured its strategy around power availability 18 months ago, and the company now has three priority sites near full permitting with tenants in negotiations at each location. The company maintains $819 million in liquidity, including approximately $698 million in unrestricted cash and $121 million in bitcoin holdings.

How Are Other Miners Responding to the AI Opportunity?

• Marathon Digital Holdings: Agreed to purchase a 505 megawatt gas plant in Ohio for $1.5 billion to support AI infrastructure expansion.
• IREN: Signed a five-year, $3.4 billion cloud deal with Nvidia for Blackwell GPUs, representing a major commitment to AI computing.
• Other Operators: Bitdeer reduced its bitcoin holdings to zero in February 2026, while Empery Digital sold 1,400 BTC in July, and Cipher Digital and DMG Blockchain have all moved to repurpose power capacity or hardware for AI customers.

Across the publicly traded mining sector, operators have sold more than 15,000 BTC since their treasury holdings peaked, and announced more than $70 billion in AI and high-performance computing contracts. This represents a fundamental reallocation of capital and infrastructure from cryptocurrency mining to artificial intelligence infrastructure.

Keel's stock price fell more than 11 percent on Monday, August 10, 2026, following the earnings announcement. However, the company's Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Mir stated that Keel is "better capitalized today than at any point in our Company's history," citing the $458 million convertible note offering raised during the quarter.

The company also disclosed additional progress on its infrastructure buildout, including securing zoning approvals at its Panther Creek and Sharon sites, appointing Ganesh Aiyer as president, receiving its first Vertiv modules at Moses Lake, and agreeing to take over 96 megawatts of capacity for a data center in Sherbrooke, Quebec.

What Does This Mean for Bitcoin Mining's Future?

Keel's exit from bitcoin mining represents a watershed moment for the industry. The company's decision to liquidate mining assets and redeploy infrastructure toward AI reflects the economic reality that power availability, not mining hardware, has become the binding constraint for profitability. As traditional mining margins compress, operators with access to significant power resources are finding greater returns in leasing that power to AI data center operators than in mining bitcoin themselves.

The trend also signals that the competitive landscape for electricity is shifting. AI data centers are willing to pay premium rates for reliable power, outbidding bitcoin miners who operate on thinner margins. For companies like Keel with development pipelines across Pennsylvania, Washington State, and Quebec, the strategic pivot offers a path to profitability even as bitcoin mining economics deteriorate.