Like the largest cryptocurrency itself, the bitcoin mining industry, particularly in publicly traded form, is young. But in recent years, it has faced increasing demands from the investment community to diversify its revenue streams. In what could be a positive long-term catalyst for bitcoin mining stocks and ETFs such as the CoinShares Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI ), AI represents a prime avenue for miners to reduce dependence on bitcoin. It’s widely known that miners have computing capacity and power to make contributions in AI. Miners, including WGMI holdings, could also be valuable when it comes to data centers.
If semiconductors are the picks and shovels of AI, data centers are the foundation. They are power-intensive. And that’s an area in which some analysts believe cryptocurrency miners can make inroads while flexing their respective AI muscles.
Data Centers Demand Could Propel WGMI
As data center demand surges on the back of AI, so do power demands. And that could create shortages — an issue bitcoin miners could address. It’s clear the need is there and won’t dissipate anytime soon.
“Critical power shortage on horizon – blockchain-focused companies are uniquely positioned. With the latest Nvidia Blackwell chip being configured at 60-120kW per rack, compared to the H100-200 at 25-45kW, and legacy chipsets at 8kW per rack, and with the anticipated launch of the Rubin chip in 2026, we anticipate power shortages that could easily exceed 40GW,” wrote JMP Securities analyst Greg Miller in a recent report.
Miller adds that bitcoin miners’ already low-cost/high-density power stacks are needed to run data centers. That makes those companies “uniquely situated to provide additional space and power for data centers.” Among WGMI holdings that could benefit from the exponential growth of data centers, Miller highlighted Hut 8 Mining (HUT) and Core Scientific (CORZ).
The analyst noted Hut 8 has the hyper-power computing capacity to develop a multibillion-dollar recurring revenue stream in the data center space. Should that come to fruition, it’d likely be a significant catalyst for one of WGMI’s top 10 holdings. Overall, there’s potential for data center power demand to more than double the market value of the bitcoin mining industry.
“We think more than 5GW of incremental capacity could be provided, creating $20+ billion of potential incremental equity value (net of investment), compared with the current aggregate market capitalization of ~$ 9.0 billion,” added Miller.
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