mining

Bitcoin mining company IREN announced the completion of an investment-grade GPU financing totaling $3.65 billion to support its AI cloud contract signed with Microsoft.The financing includes $2.1 billion in U.S. private placement bonds and $1.55 billion in delayed draw term loans, with a combined debt cost of 6%.It is reported that this financing received an A rating from Fitch and an A (low) rating from DBRS, making it the highest-rated investment-grade GPU financing project currently publicly disclosed, and also the first GPU financing case in the U.S. private placement market.IREN stated that the financing is secured by GPU assets and related contract cash flows, which helps optimize the capital structure and supports the company in expanding AI Cloud capacity to 480MW by the end of 2026.

CloverPool data shows that the Bitcoin mining difficulty was adjusted at 18:29 at block height 951,552, with the mining difficulty increased by 1.72% to 138.96 T. Currently, the average hash rate across the network for the past seven days is 1.02 ZH/s.

10x Research published on platform X that amidst the slump in Bitcoin, the mining and AI infrastructure sectors have surged significantly. KEEL rose by 30%, CIFR rose by 29%, IREN rose by 29%, WULF rose by 24%, and HUT rose by 22%, mainly driven by large hyperscale data center transactions, park acquisitions, and new institutional support.This week's catalysts include IREN's $1.6 billion purchase of Dell Blackwell systems, TeraWulf's acquisition of a 1 GW park in Kentucky, and Hut 8 signing a $9.8 billion leasing agreement in Texas, indicating that Bitcoin mining companies' transition to AI infrastructure is accelerating.

According to The Block, the stock prices of Bitcoin mining companies transforming into AI and hyperscale computing continue to rise. IREN rose over 13% on Wednesday, nearing an all-time high, after announcing a $3 billion convertible bond financing, collaborating with NVIDIA to build a 5 GW AI data center, and acquiring Mirantis for $625 million. On Tuesday, it also reached a $1.6 billion agreement with Dell to supply the Blackwell AI system.Cipher and Hut 8 both reached all-time highs, with Cipher rising about 9.5% to $25 and Hut 8 rising nearly 5% to $118, with HUT increasing nearly 600% over the past year. TeraWulf rose over 6% on Wednesday, with a year-over-year increase of about 800%, and its HPC business's quarterly revenue exceeded that of its Bitcoin mining business for the first time. Riot rose 3.3% to $27 on Wednesday, with first-quarter data center revenue of $33 million, primarily from its collaboration with AMD. This year, it has sold part of its Bitcoin holdings to finance AI construction and still holds nearly $1.2 billion in Bitcoin.

According to the official announcement, Binance Wallet has launched a brand new DeFi experience, integrating three core functions: DeFi earning, DeFi lending, and liquidity pools, supporting over 40 protocols including BNB Chain, Ethereum, Base, and Arbitrum, as well as more than 1000 pools. Users can view staking, liquidity pools, and lending positions on the same interface, and directly operate to add/remove liquidity, collect fees, and borrow through protocols like Venus.To celebrate the launch, Binance Wallet will kick off the DeFi Season event with a total prize pool of $2 million starting from May 28, 2026, covering three main themes: Staking, lending, and liquidity pools.

According to TASS, the Deputy Minister of Energy of Russia stated that the government committee recommends banning cryptocurrency mining in certain areas of the Moscow and Kursk regions, with the ban effective until 2032.

According to Bits.media, the Italian energy company Alps Blockchain has partnered with the Bolivian company Qurubiqa to launch Bitcoin mining at a dormant 127-megawatt natural gas power plant in the Cochabamba region of Bolivia. The mining site currently consumes about 27 megawatts of power, with a hash rate of 1.23 EH/s, and plans to increase power consumption to 45 megawatts by the end of the year. The mining equipment directly uses the electricity generated by the power plant and is not connected to the public grid. Due to Bolivia facing a currency crisis and a shortage of US dollars, project participants settle in US dollars.

According to the official announcement, BitRing, a selected project from the 10th season of the BNB Chain MVB Accelerator, has announced the upcoming launch of its genesis airdrop test. It is reported that the top 10,000 users in this test will share a reward of 1,000,000 BRT tokens.According to the official introduction, BitRing allows users to participate in "fitness mining" using smart wearable devices such as Apple Watch and WHOOP to earn BRT. Currently, the development progress of the protocol has reached 90%, and the BRT Protocol is about to enter the internal testing phase, where participating users can now receive 100 tBRT test tokens.In addition, the official revealed that a live fitness coach recommendation system will be launched soon, an ambassador program recruitment will be opened, and plans to explore building personalized medical AI models based on real health data.

Wu Jihan stated on platform X that the current solar energy issue in Europe is no longer just about increasing power generation, but rather the lack of sufficient flexible power demand to absorb excess energy. He cited the latest analysis from the energy research organization Pexapark, which indicates that the phenomenon of "self-cannibalization" in European photovoltaics is rapidly worsening.Wu Jihan pointed out that the speed of solar deployment in Europe has outpaced the construction of grid system flexibility. In addition to energy storage, grid expansion, and demand response, Europe should also pay attention to interruptible loads, including Bitcoin mining and other computational loads. These types of loads can be activated when electricity is abundant and shut down when the grid is tight, thus becoming the "last buyer" of excess renewable energy, reducing curtailment, improving the profitability of photovoltaic projects, and enhancing the profitability and financing feasibility of investments in generation and grid infrastructure.

According to Bits Media, the Russian government has expanded the scope of information that miners and mining infrastructure operators must submit to the tax authorities. Under the new regulations, the national registry of miners and operators must include network address data for equipment used in cryptocurrency mining (ASIC miners). The Russian Ministry of Finance stated that this move aims to simplify the regulation of digital asset transactions and the investigation of violations. Additionally, grid operators will be able to more accurately monitor the infrastructure load in areas with a high concentration of mining capacity.According to the law, government agencies, courts, the Bank of Russia, and grid operators can access the information in the miners' registry. The Federal Tax Service is responsible for maintaining the registry of miners and mining infrastructure operators. Under current law, miners and infrastructure operators (such as mining pools) must submit and regularly update the following information: for mining equipment, details such as manufacturer, model, serial number, algorithm, hash rate, power consumption, and operating mode. Regarding mining: the amount and type of cryptocurrency mined, mining pools, and links to online statistics.

According to Livecoins, the property crime investigation department DEIC of São Paulo, Brazil, in collaboration with the electricity company CPFL Piratininga, conducted an operation that seized approximately 1,400 Bitcoin mining machines suspected of operating with stolen electricity. It is estimated that the amount of stolen electricity is enough to supply about 2,000 households for a month. Although Bitcoin mining is not illegal in Brazil, the focus of the actions by CPFL and DEIC is on the theft of electricity.

According to Zhejiang Daily, recently, the Ningbo Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau successfully dismantled multiple criminal gangs smuggling virtual currency "mining machines" through in-depth operations and meticulous investigations, effectively cutting off an illegal industrial chain.Previously, during a routine inspection of a batch of imported express shipments declared as "industrial blockers," Ningbo Customs discovered that the actual goods did not match the declaration and were, in fact, virtual currency "mining machines." Customs officers quickly transferred this lead to the anti-smuggling department. After receiving the report, the Ningbo Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau immediately assembled a task force by drawing on elite personnel, and through data analysis and clue investigation, gradually clarified the organizational structure and operational model of the criminal network. When the timing was right, they decisively struck, simultaneously conducting net-seizing operations in Dongguan, Shenzhen, and other locations, successfully dismantling multiple smuggling gangs of mining machines.Upon investigation, it was confirmed that this series of cases seized over 400 illegal entry mining machines of brands such as Ant L9 and Ice River KS3. The investigation revealed that the smuggling gang led by Liao, in order to make illegal profits, procured "mining machines" from overseas suppliers, disassembled the whole machines, and misreported the product names to smuggle them into the country through international express channels from ports in Ningbo, Guangzhou, and other places. After the goods entered the country, the gang reassembled them, either selling them directly domestically or transporting them to hidden "mining sites" in Xinjiang, Hunan, and other places to engage in illegal virtual currency "mining" activities. At the same time, they utilized virtual currencies like USDT for cross-border payment settlements to evade financial supervision.

Research firm Bernstein released a report stating that as the demand for AI data centers explodes, Bitcoin mining companies are becoming important participants in large-scale computing infrastructure, with a positive outlook on the future performance of miners such as IREN, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific.The report points out that major cloud providers, AI cloud service providers, and chip companies have announced over $90 billion in AI infrastructure collaborations, involving approximately 3.7 GW of power capacity. Bernstein states that "Follow the Gigawatts" is becoming the core of competition in AI infrastructure, and the large-scale power resources controlled by mining companies hold strategic value.Analysts have given IREN, Riot, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific an "outperform" rating, with a target price of $100 for IREN, indicating about a 98% upside potential from the current stock price; CleanSpark has a target price of $24, corresponding to about a 78% upside potential.The report states that Bitcoin mining companies currently control over 27 GW of planned power capacity, and in some areas of the United States, the new 1 GW power connection cycle may take up to 50 months, making existing mining sites important locations for the expansion of AI data centers.Bernstein also mentioned several AI collaboration cases, including IREN planning a 5 GW AI computing park based on NVIDIA's AI Factory architecture, and Riot reaching a collaboration with AMD for an AI data center of up to 200 MW.However, analysts also warned that the industry still faces challenges such as environmental reviews, grid capacity, and regulatory approvals. Additionally, if mining companies overly shift their computing resources towards AI, they may miss out on future gains during the Bitcoin bull market cycle.

Ionic Digital released an unaudited mining and operational update report for April 2026, disclosing that 20.45 bitcoins (BTC) were mined in April, a decrease of 27.1% compared to the previous month. The average daily hash rate was 1.51 EH/s, a month-on-month decrease of 26.2%, mainly due to the complete shutdown of its hosting facility in GXD, Oklahoma, which is currently out of operation.Currently, the company has only four mining sites in Midland still operating, which contributed all 20.45 BTC output in April. During the same period, global network hash rate decreased by 2.1%, but block output remained basically stable, with a month-on-month increase of 0.5%. In terms of finances, Ionic Digital maintained a zero-debt status, having not sold any BTC in April. As of April 30, the company held 2,836.4 BTC, an increase of approximately 19.9 BTC compared to the previous month.

According to Bits.media, the Russian government's legislative committee has approved a proposal to ban cryptocurrency mining in the border areas of Kursk Oblast. The ban affects eight regions and the city of Lgov. The governor stated that this move was made at the request of resource supply organizations, as residents in nine border regions are exempt from paying public utility fees, including electricity costs, and establishing mining facilities would impose a financial burden on the federal budget. The ban aims to prevent exacerbated energy shortages due to attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces and difficulties in restoring infrastructure. The governor did not announce a specific implementation date but indicated that the ban might be lifted if conditions improve in the future. There have been previous reports that the mining ban could extend to the entire Central Russia region.

According to The Block, digital infrastructure company Soluna Holdings announced its first-quarter financial report, with revenue increasing by 58% year-on-year to $9.4 million, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of sequential growth. The data center hosting business generated $6.7 million, while cryptocurrency mining contributed approximately $2.2 million, down from nearly $3 million in the same period last year.Net loss widened from $10.5 million in the same period last year to $17.9 million, primarily due to increased equity incentives, interest, and financing costs. Adjusted EBITDA loss slightly narrowed to $2.1 million. At the end of the quarter, it held $68.6 million in cash. Soluna is participating in the wave of Bitcoin miners seeking new sources of revenue, shifting capital towards AI and high-performance computing infrastructure.

According to CoinDesk, former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner has increased his disclosed investment size from $5.5 billion to $13.67 billion as of March 31, 2026, and has significantly bought shares in Bitcoin mining companies and AI infrastructure companies.His key holdings include mining companies such as IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Bitfarms, Bitdeer, and Hive Digital, betting that their power resources and data center capabilities will benefit from the growing demand for AI computing power.At the same time, he has also established a short position of approximately $7.46 billion in semiconductors, including large put option positions on the VanEck Semiconductor ETF, NVIDIA, Oracle, and Broadcom.

According to Bits.media, the U.S. Department of Justice has announced the initiation of a compensation program for victims of the cryptocurrency mining scam AirBit Club. Founded in 2015, AirBit Club operated a financial pyramid scheme under the guise of cryptocurrency mining and virtual currency trading platforms. U.S. authorities have seized over $400 million in assets for compensation. Victims who previously provided information to the FBI or prosecutors will be contacted by RCB Fund Services. Prosecutors stated that there are no fees for the compensation process.The founder of AirBit Club was charged with money laundering and fraud by the Southern District of New York in August 2020, and the trial concluded in September 2023, with the court ordering the forfeiture of all fraud proceeds, including over 16,000 bitcoins.

According to Khaosod English, Thai authorities raided a location suspected of illegal Bitcoin mining. Due to abnormally high electricity consumption causing the surrounding building's cables to overheat and melt, law enforcement conducted a surprise search of a four-story commercial building. The investigation revealed that the location was suspected of illegally connecting to the main power grid to supply electricity to multiple Bitcoin mining machines on the fourth floor, resulting in an estimated power loss of over $80,000, while its registered monthly electricity bill was only about $11. Currently, the police have seized relevant mining equipment and are conducting further investigations into the individuals involved.