How long can crypto miners keep outperforming bitcoin?

Stocks of mining companies, which lagged bitcoin through the end of April, have now joined and outpaced the cryptocurrency's gains. On Monday, July 14, bitcoin broke the psychologically important $120,000 mark. Meanwhile, as of yesterday, July 15, the CoinShares Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) is up 29.0% over the last month and the Grayscale Bitcoin Miners ETF (MNRS) has gained nearly 18.5%, while bitcoin itself has added just over 10.0%. Meanwhile, inflows into Bitcoin ETFs are breaking records: $2.72 billion came in last week, from July 7 to July 11.

Institutional buying of spot Bitcoin ETFs, combined with shortages of power for AI, has lifted miners out of what was once a niche corner of the market. They are increasingly viewed as owners of ready-made infrastructure: data centers with access to cheap, stable power. That’s why miner stocks now have an “infrastructure premium" priced in, besides their standard correlation with bitcoin’s price.

Analyst Aldiyar Anuarbekov explains why the miner rally may continue to outpace bitcoin and highlights which companies investors should watch.

The bitcoin mining sector once followed a simple rule: The miner with the cheapest electricity wins. That is no longer enough. Following a wave of bankruptcies in 2022, investors have become increasingly focused on operational efficiency. It is not just the cost per megawatt that matters, but how effectively capacity is utilized and how well teams convert hashrate (the computational power used to mine bitcoin) into stable cash flow.

In a thematic report published on June 23, Wells Fargo estimated that cumulative capital inflows into spot bitcoin ETFs totaled more than $46 billion between January 2024 and June 2025. The cryptocurrency’s total market capitalization now stands in the trillions of dollars. Analysts at the bank describe this inflow of capital as the start of the "institutional phase" of digital assets, where the key is no longer speculation on exchange rates, but who can mine bitcoin cheaper while building a business around compute infrastructure.

Risks, of course, remain – from bitcoin halving to potential shifts in regulation. On the one hand, the current regulatory stance appears relatively liberal; on the other, the risk of a sharp reversal cannot be ruled out. Wells Fargo points to a historical precedent: During the Great Depression in 1933, U.S. authorities banned private ownership of gold. This serves as a reminder that governments have, at times, abruptly rewritten the rules of the game, and investors in digital assets must account for that possibility in their valuations.

Still, a clear trend has emerged: Miners no longer simply produce crypto tokens. They are evolving into operators of computing infrastructure. Companies now allocate energy capacity between blockchain workloads and AI processing, manage exposure across fiat and digital assets, and increasingly derive valuation not from the amount of bitcoin mined but from the flexibility of their financial models, access to low-cost power, and ability to integrate themselves into the AI-driven economy.

Against this backdrop, IREN stands out. The U.S.-based data center operator has successfully linked bitcoin mining with surging demand for computing power in AI. The company’s shares are up nearly 72% year to date, including a 73% gain over the last month.

Most of IREN’s hardware is located at its 750 MW Childress site, where the average energy efficiency reaches 15 J/TH and power costs are around $35 per MWh. By comparison, most U.S. miners pay at least $40 per MWh and operate with less efficient equipment. Low-cost energy and high-performance machines provide IREN with two key advantages: insulation from the next block reward reduction (the fourth bitcoin halving is expected in 2028, cutting industry revenue in half) and the flexibility to shift compute resources toward machine-learning tasks, where margins currently exceed those of traditional mining.

According to IREN’s fiscal-third-quarter report, the company’s average cost per coin was approximately $40,500, versus $50,000-70,000 at peers such as Marathon Digital, Core Scientific, and Riot Platforms. That cost gap offers a meaningful cushion: Even if bitcoin were to fall to $90,000, IREN would remain profitable, while much of the market would be back near breakeven.

IREN’s further growth now hinges on high-performance computing (HPC). Its first large-scale data center, Horizon 1, is expected to reach full capacity in the fourth quarter of 2025, with tenant negotiations already underway. This marks a strategic pivot: Rather than focusing only on mining, IREN is building a multi-purpose compute cluster, supporting everything from AI training to inferencing. The model offers revenue diversification and reduces exposure to crypto market volatility.

Should political winds shift, capital transfers between crypto platforms and banks could become complicated again. IREN is factoring in that risk. The company has accumulated $160 million in cash, avoids excess leverage, and limited its recent equity issuance to just 5% of capital. Of its $250 million investment plan for 2025, the majority is being funded through operating cash flow.

Analysts at JPMorgan view the planned acquisition of bitcoin miner Core Scientific by AI infrastructure provider CoreWeave as a key signal for the entire HPC sector. They think the proposed deal highlights how energy-intensive mining infrastructure is gaining new value amid soaring demand for AI and data analytics capacity.

Today, energy-connected facilities near major metropolitan areas are already being valued at roughly $5 million per megawatt, a figure reportedly under discussion in the potential CoreWeave transaction, JPMorgan stated in a recent report. By comparison, Riot Platforms, one of the largest miners with a large data center in Texas, is valued at about half that rate. This suggests the market has yet to fully reprice mining infrastructure based on its utility in AI. Meanwhile, Core Scientific has seen insider buying. Board member Yadin Rozov recently purchased 110,000 shares at $10.87 apiece. Against the backdrop of CoreWeave takeover speculation, the move helped reinforce investor confidence and strengthen bullish sentiment. While Core Scientific’s share price is largely flat year to date, the stock has gained 15.6% over the last month.

Shares of Marathon Digital are up nearly 12% year to date and have gained 28% over the last month. JPMorgan has highlighted a shift in the company’s strategy: Marathon is testing a new equipment cooling system while also preparing to mine bitcoin using “stranded” energy sources, such as associated gas (a byproduct from oil extraction that is typically flared and not utilized commercially). Thus, the cost of electricity could drop to as low as $10 per MWh. With an average production cost of $73,000 per coin, that rate represents the minimum threshold needed to preserve operational profitability following the next bitcoin halving, when block rewards will again be cut in half.

Shares of Chinese miner Cango have gained 7.2% so far this year, with the stock up approximately 150% over the last 12 months. Following the $352 million sale of Ursalpha’s auto lending business, Cango acquired 50 exahashes per second (EH/s) of computing power from a Bitmain-affiliated subsidiary. As a result, it is now the second-largest publicly listed mining company by output volume. The stock trades at a multiple of 1 to expected 2026 sales. Unlike most miners, which typically allocate liquidity to capex or debt servicing, Cango treats its U.S. dollar reserves as a strategic asset on par with its bitcoin infrastructure. No other publicly traded company in the sector has yet demonstrated such a balanced capital management approach.

Notably, Bitmain also transferred some of its equipment to American Bitcoin, a mining entity affiliated with the Trump family. According to Bloomberg, its founders include Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, in partnership with miner Hut 8. The company is currently preparing for an IPO in the U.S.

Gryphon Digital Mining shares have surged nearly 220% since the start of the year and are up 715% over the last three months. In May, Gryphon and American Bitcoin announced a merger under which 98% of the combined entity will be owned by current American Bitcoin shareholders. Following the announcement on May 12, Gryphon’s stock spiked 350%. Under the terms of the deal, Gryphon will acquire American Bitcoin in a reverse merger, after which the combined company will operate under the American Bitcoin brand and list on the Nasdaq under the ticker ABTC.

The merger allows Gryphon to avoid the risk of delisting while gaining access to American Bitcoin’s large-scale platform, which is focused on building a strategic bitcoin reserve and industrial-scale mining operations in the U.S. The combined company will be led by American Bitcoin’s management team. This will give Gryphon the opportunity to integrate into an established operating structure and tap what analysts have described as politically hedged capital.

The AI translation of this story was reviewed by a human editor.