The shift of mining power to AI: potential risks for the crypto market in 2026+

[DrBeer]

Plus, the decline in the investment attractiveness of cryptocurrency itself (investors are actively transferring money from cryptocurrencies to AI) will lead to the devaluation of cryptocurrency,
 and this causes a chain reaction—low prices in the long term—mining becomes unprofitable or loss-making due to the same very expensive electricity for mining companies.

Most crypto investments are over the big corps ETF.
Mining is not really a target for Investors, they after values and a few follow Saylor's lead and buy bitcoin.
AI is not in competition to Crypto, only the hype followers believe the AI hype priest like the Nvidia, X, Zuck the oracle guy.
All have a lot to loose if AI does not succeed. The are also delusional with their AI plus robotic approach and sending data centers into space. None is talking about the inconvenience of service. Robots also need services and the market is rather small to get a household slave unable to fold a shirt.
So in my eyes there is not a competition. Crypto is a fair space you can only buy a coin if someone is selling one.
Futures and options are a different ballgame.

Again, I couldn't convey my thought correctly in English

Let me give you a slightly different example, which I hope will be clearer: when you invest in gold, you are not investing in mines. You are definitely not investing in mines! That is a fact. But when you buy gold, as others repeat, the appeal of research and exploration, and then the construction of gold mines, increases.  This is also a FACT! The result is an indirect but quite obvious relationship: by buying a product and creating demand for it, you influence its production and growth.
Now let's imagine that the locations of gold deposits are being given away, for example, for construction... let's say for solar energy fields, because 1 dollar invested in gold mining will give you, very roughly, 10 dollars in profit over 10 years, while 1 dollar invested in solar energy will give you 1,000 dollars over the same period. The question is, where will there be more investment, and where will it come from? Especially if the key resource is land, and priority is given to gold miners? And as a result, what will develop and what will become less profitable and lose its appeal and demand in the market?

[gibrab16]

Plus, the decline in the investment attractiveness of cryptocurrency itself (investors are actively transferring money from cryptocurrencies to AI) will lead to the devaluation of cryptocurrency,
 and this causes a chain reaction—low prices in the long term—mining becomes unprofitable or loss-making due to the same very expensive electricity for mining companies.

Most crypto investments are over the big corps ETF.
Mining is not really a target for Investors, they after values and a few follow Saylor's lead and buy bitcoin.
AI is not in competition to Crypto, only the hype followers believe the AI hype priest like the Nvidia, X, Zuck the oracle guy.
All have a lot to loose if AI does not succeed. The are also delusional with their AI plus robotic approach and sending data centers into space. None is talking about the inconvenience of service. Robots also need services and the market is rather small to get a household slave unable to fold a shirt.
So in my eyes there is not a competition. Crypto is a fair space you can only buy a coin if someone is selling one.
Futures and options are a different ballgame.

Again, I couldn't convey my thought correctly in English

Let me give you a slightly different example, which I hope will be clearer: when you invest in gold, you are not investing in mines. You are definitely not investing in mines! That is a fact. But when you buy gold, as others repeat, the appeal of research and exploration, and then the construction of gold mines, increases.  This is also a FACT! The result is an indirect but quite obvious relationship: by buying a product and creating demand for it, you influence its production and growth.
Now let's imagine that the locations of gold deposits are being given away, for example, for construction... let's say for solar energy fields, because 1 dollar invested in gold mining will give you, very roughly, 10 dollars in profit over 10 years, while 1 dollar invested in solar energy will give you 1,000 dollars over the same period. The question is, where will there be more investment, and where will it come from? Especially if the key resource is land, and priority is given to gold miners? And as a result, what will develop and what will become less profitable and lose its appeal and demand in the market?

When people buy gold, they’re not funding mines directly. No one buying a gold bar is thinking about excavators and drilling permits. But demand still sends a loud signal. High demand makes mining more attractive, exploration ramps up, investors step in, and suddenly more land and resources get locked into gold production. That’s the indirect link.

[bitgolden]

While GPU mining is still a thing, it's much smaller than what it used to be, because GPU's are going towards AI instead. SO we have asic miners, which has nothing to do with AI, and we have companies that use these ASIC miners to mine bitcoin, doubt really it would be that much of a overlap between asic mining and AI world because the only thing common between them is that they both use energy, but so does your fridge, doesn't destroy fridge market suddenly.

You can't just open up an AI company and have bunch of servers, so instead people do ASIC mining, which only requires a capital to start.

[DrBeer]

Plus, the decline in the investment attractiveness of cryptocurrency itself (investors are actively transferring money from cryptocurrencies to AI) will lead to the devaluation of cryptocurrency,
 and this causes a chain reaction—low prices in the long term—mining becomes unprofitable or loss-making due to the same very expensive electricity for mining companies.

Most crypto investments are over the big corps ETF.
Mining is not really a target for Investors, they after values and a few follow Saylor's lead and buy bitcoin.
AI is not in competition to Crypto, only the hype followers believe the AI hype priest like the Nvidia, X, Zuck the oracle guy.
All have a lot to loose if AI does not succeed. The are also delusional with their AI plus robotic approach and sending data centers into space. None is talking about the inconvenience of service. Robots also need services and the market is rather small to get a household slave unable to fold a shirt.
So in my eyes there is not a competition. Crypto is a fair space you can only buy a coin if someone is selling one.
Futures and options are a different ballgame.

Again, I couldn't convey my thought correctly in English

Let me give you a slightly different example, which I hope will be clearer: when you invest in gold, you are not investing in mines. You are definitely not investing in mines! That is a fact. But when you buy gold, as others repeat, the appeal of research and exploration, and then the construction of gold mines, increases.  This is also a FACT! The result is an indirect but quite obvious relationship: by buying a product and creating demand for it, you influence its production and growth.
Now let's imagine that the locations of gold deposits are being given away, for example, for construction... let's say for solar energy fields, because 1 dollar invested in gold mining will give you, very roughly, 10 dollars in profit over 10 years, while 1 dollar invested in solar energy will give you 1,000 dollars over the same period. The question is, where will there be more investment, and where will it come from? Especially if the key resource is land, and priority is given to gold miners? And as a result, what will develop and what will become less profitable and lose its appeal and demand in the market?

When people buy gold, they’re not funding mines directly. No one buying a gold bar is thinking about excavators and drilling permits. But demand still sends a loud signal. High demand makes mining more attractive, exploration ramps up, investors step in, and suddenly more land and resources get locked into gold production. That’s the indirect link.

Well, here I would argue that demand for a resource and its price increase lead to investments in the development of new deposits. But when it comes to mining and AI, the situation is slightly different—there is demand for cryptocurrencies, but their investment attractiveness has declined, as if the price of gold began to fall and demand also began to fall.
 However, another resource has appeared that requires land where there is potential for gold, let it be... let it be, for example, fields for solar stations, which (let's assume) generate significantly more profit than gold.
 Investors will look for land, and governments, for example, will easily sell land with potential gold deposits for giant solar power plant projects, as they guarantee higher profits at lower costs.
 This means that gold mining will lose resources for gold extraction. This is exactly what could potentially happen with mining resources—space, electricity, and, for example, water for cooling. When AI becomes less profitable, these resources may return to mining. But right now, there is a wild surge in demand for AI, and it is difficult to say how long it will last. I do not rule out that it will be virtually eternal.
 

[DrBeer]

Some news on the topic, with specific examples of changing priorities even among miners themselves:
Crypto mining companies are changing their business model and focusing on artificial intelligence. The reason is that Bitcoin mining is becoming more difficult and less profitable, while demand for AI computing power continues to grow rapidly.
Miners already have key assets that are particularly valuable today: large data centers, advanced cooling systems, land, and long-term electricity contracts. This is exactly the kind of infrastructure needed by tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta*, which are actively expanding their AI operations.
The transition to AI is not easy. Working with AI loads requires more complex cooling systems and network infrastructure. However, cooperation with former miners allows AI companies to launch new capacities faster and cheaper than building data centers from scratch.
Some companies are going even further. For example, Core Scientific has announced plans to completely abandon Bitcoin mining by 2028 and focus exclusively on serving AI clients.

[WillyAp]

Miners already have key assets that are particularly valuable today: large data centers, advanced cooling systems, land, and long-term electricity contracts. This is exactly the kind of infrastructure needed by tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta*, which are actively expanding their AI operations.

What they don't have is the hardware. But if that is not an issue the danger lies in less networking power.

[DrBeer]

Miners already have key assets that are particularly valuable today: large data centers, advanced cooling systems, land, and long-term electricity contracts. This is exactly the kind of infrastructure needed by tech giants such as Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet, and Meta*, which are actively expanding their AI operations.

What they don't have is the hardware. But if that is not an issue the danger lies in less networking power.

To train neural networks, you need:
- equipment: mainly specialized accelerators and RAM
- to power all of this, a very high amount of electricity
- for all of the above, huge areas for data centers, with supporting systems such as cooling

[WillyAp]

To train neural networks, you need:
- equipment: mainly specialized accelerators and RAM
- to power all of this, a very high amount of electricity
- for all of the above, huge areas for data centers, with supporting systems such as cooling

Here is someone who did a test:

"I've got a bunch of GPU mining rigs, surely I can do something useful with them like train my own AI or provide hashing power to astronomy or genome folding operations?"

https://ai.stackexchange.com/questions/40511/can-gpu-crypto-mining-rigs-be-converted-to-train-or-run-ai

[DrBeer]

To train neural networks, you need:
- equipment: mainly specialized accelerators and RAM
- to power all of this, a very high amount of electricity
- for all of the above, huge areas for data centers, with supporting systems such as cooling

Here is someone who did a test:

"I've got a bunch of GPU mining rigs, surely I can do something useful with them like train my own AI or provide hashing power to astronomy or genome folding operations?"

https://ai.stackexchange.com/questions/40511/can-gpu-crypto-mining-rigs-be-converted-to-train-or-run-ai

Although I started this topic by giving the AI sector the benefit of the doubt, I increasingly have a feeling of déjà vu I suppose that the mega-boom will probably not end in a “dot-com crash,” but there will be a noticeable decline in the INVESTMENT attractiveness of AI.
 Today's COSTS for AI, in terms of mass consumption, will not meet investors' expectations, in my opinion, which will lead to an outflow of capital. This will not happen tomorrow, but soon enough, I would guess in 3-5 years.
 Therefore, the market will separate into “mass AI,” with relatively inexpensive systems for everyday use, and narrow-profile, already really expensive systems that actually bring significant profits because they will provide solutions in areas where AI can generate high added value, such as pharmaceuticals and the military-industrial complex.
 

[EarnOnVictor]

Crypto mining and AI development are two different subjects, in my opinion, which do not relate in any wide sense of it. Is it the fear of electricity, or any share/distribution of resources, I believe the two industries will thrive independently without hurting themselves.

What I still do not know is how you believe the two industries relate. Perhaps you need to shed more light because, even miners could co-own it and AI development projects. They do not harm each other, in my opinion. Besides, AI is being used in crypto mining now, it's all about how you view it.