Mark this date:

On March 31st, 2026...

The biggest scam in the history of gold markets will be exposed...

It's the math that keeps bankers up at night...

The gold chart that has Wall Street shaking in its loafers...

That's the day the public will see that their gold ETFs are nothing but paper...

The rush from ETFs to real assets will be unlike anything we've seen in 300 years.

One stock on the receiving end of this epic transfer, is set to explode 1,000% as ETF holders could get wiped out.

This isn't a hunch - it's math.

See all the evidence for yourself right here and take your position before it's too late.

"The Buck Stops Here,"

Dylan Jovine

The Great Pivot: Bitcoin Miners Are Becoming AI's Landlords

Author: Jeffrey Neal Johnson. Article Posted: 2/6/2026.

At a Glance

Valuation models are rapidly shifting focus from mining speed to total power capacity as energy availability becomes the primary asset for growth.
Major operators are successfully securing long-term contracts with leading technology firms to host high-performance computing workloads.
Strategic partnerships with hyperscalers validate the transition of legacy mining facilities into modern data centers for the digital economy.

The digital asset sector is experiencing a pronounced divergence. As of the end of the first week of February, Bitcoin has corrected to roughly $62,000. In prior years, a decline of this size would have battered nearly every stock in the space. Today, however, a subset of companies is decoupling from crypto-market volatility. These operators are executing the Great Pivot—shifting focus from pure coin mining to powering the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution.

For investors, the key metrics are changing. Company valuations are no longer just about exahashes (mining speed); they're increasingly about megawatts (power capacity). The United States power grid is growing congested, and bringing new high-voltage transmission lines online can take four to six years because of regulatory hurdles and supply‑chain constraints.

The Silver Strategy Hiding Inside IRAs (Ad)

In 2000, I told Barron's that a popular dot-com stock was headed for trouble. It dropped 90%. Now I'm making the opposite call on that same company: buy it now. This stock has become the lifeblood of AI data centers, yet almost no one has caught the story. While the media focuses on AI chip wars, they've missed this company's essential role in building out data centers. Their hardware is so critical that a single building uses enough of it to stretch around the world eight times. If you own Nvidia, you might want to pivot. If you missed Nvidia, this is your second chance at the AI data center buildout happening worldwide.

See the under-the-radar play fueling AI data centers

That creates a distinct arbitrage: Bitcoin miners already own energized, grid‑connected sites. In the race to build data centers, time‑to‑power is now one of the most valuable assets in the industry.

Applied Digital: The North Star of Infrastructure

If the industry needs a roadmap for moving from blockchain to high‑performance computing (HPC), Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) offers one. Rather than retrofitting older mining warehouses, Applied Digital designed its newest facilities for HPC from the ground up.

That distinction is technical but important. Modern AI accelerators, including the latest chips from NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), generate far more heat than Bitcoin mining rigs. Traditional air cooling (fan‑based) is often insufficient for these high‑density clusters. Applied Digital has invested heavily in liquid‑cooling infrastructure—a costlier but necessary technology for next‑generation computing.

Key investment factors:

The backlog: Their foresight has produced an estimated $11 billion leasing backlog.
The model: They act as a hyperscale landlord, providing the physical shell, power and cooling while tenants like CoreWeave (NASDAQ: CRWV) install expensive servers.
The risk: Being a first mover requires large upfront investments; the company carries significant debt to finance rapid construction.

For investors, Applied Digital is one of the purest plays on the infrastructure thesis: the potential for high, fixed‑rate revenue is substantial, but it requires heavy spending today to build the "factory" of tomorrow.

The Conversion: Turning Megawatts Into Revenue

While Applied Digital focuses on new builds, other large operators are demonstrating that existing mining facilities can be converted to serve Big Tech. This hybrid model lets companies continue mining with surplus power while dedicating their most stable energy tiers to AI clients.

Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) is an example of scale and independence. After the proposed acquisition by CoreWeave was terminated in late 2025, Core Scientific remained independent—allowing shareholders to retain the upside of its extensive physical footprint. It is now the largest host for CoreWeave's GPU fleet, turning stranded power—that is, energy capacity previously only useful for mining—into a premium, high‑margin asset.

Similarly, IREN (NASDAQ: IREN), formerly Iris Energy, is aggressively scaling to fulfill a $9.7 billion AI cloud services pact with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). That contract signals a shift from simple hosting toward becoming a bona fide technology cloud provider.

But the transition has friction. In its earnings report released Feb. 5, 2026, IREN reported revenue of $184.7 million, missing analyst expectations. The stock faced immediate pressure as the market digested the costs.

This highlights the primary risk today: execution.

Logistics: Deploying 140,000 GPUs is an immense logistical challenge.
CapEx: It requires billions in upfront spending before the rent checks start arriving.
Timeline: Construction delays can result in missed quarterly targets.

While the Microsoft deal validates the business model, the earnings miss is a reminder that the pivot is capital‑intensive and highly complex.

The Validation: When Big Tech Enters the Room

The strongest validation of the power pivot is the caliber of counterparties signing leases. It's one thing for a miner to claim they are AI‑ready; it's another to have contracts backed by trillion‑dollar technology firms.

Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) recently secured a 15‑year, $7 billion lease agreement for its River Bend campus. The deal is with Fluidstack but is financially backed by Google. This agreement is strong evidence that major tech companies view crypto miners as important partners in addressing the global data center shortage.

The American Bitcoin Strategy

Hut 8 has also taken steps to clarify its investment narrative through corporate restructuring.

The spin‑off: It completed the separation of pure‑play mining operations into a subsidiary, American Bitcoin (NASDAQ: ABTC).
The logic: This separates the volatility of Bitcoin prices from the stability of the infrastructure business.
The result: Investors can now choose their exposure. American Bitcoin is for those seeking high‑risk, high‑reward crypto exposure, while the parent company, Hut 8, becomes a steadier infrastructure play that aims to generate predictable, compounding cash flow similar to a utility.

A New Asset Class Emerges

The investment narrative for these stocks has shifted. Value is no longer tied solely to Bitcoin's price or mining difficulty. Instead, the sector is evolving into a form of digital‑infrastructure real estate.

As demand for computational power outstrips the world's ability to generate and transmit energy, companies that control access to power have a strategic advantage. Whether through new construction like Applied Digital, large‑scale retrofitting like Core Scientific and IREN, or complex deal‑making like Hut 8, the objective is the same: diversify revenue and secure long‑term survival.

Recent volatility—IREN's earnings miss and Bitcoin's price correction—looks like short‑term noise against a longer‑term trend. The Great Pivot is becoming mandatory. As block rewards decline and mining difficulty increases, the only sustainable path for many public miners is to become the landlords of the AI economy. For investors, the question is no longer just where crypto prices go next, but who can reliably keep the lights on for the AI revolution.

Thank you for subscribing to Insider Trades Daily, which covers the most recent insider buying and selling activity from Wall Street CEO's, CFO's, COO's and other insiders.

This email message is a sponsored message for Behind the Markets, a third-party advertiser of InsiderTrades.com and MarketBeat.

If you need help with your account, don't hesitate to email our U.S. based support team at contact@marketbeat.com.

If you no longer wish to receive email from InsiderTrades.com, you can unsubscribe.

© 2006-2026 MarketBeat Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
345 N Reid Place, Sixth Floor, Sioux Falls, South Dakota 57103-7078. United States..

Check This Out: Trump's Final Shocking Act Begins February 24 (From Banyan Hill Publishing)