While today’s data center conversation revolves around AI, bitcoin mining was the original energy disruptor — and its operators are now poised to cash in on the new demand.
Bitcoin, the most popular form of cryptocurrency — or digital money traded on virtual financial exchanges — is validated through industrial-scale mining operations. Today, rising operating costs and growing competition are pushing the largest miners to diversify.
Fortunately for them, mining infrastructure requires many of the critical resources that cloud computing companies are scrambling to secure, providing a natural pivot from churning out secure currencies like Bitcoin to fueling AI data centers.
“It makes them more profitable,” Maryland Blockchain Association CEO Jacqueline Cooper told Technical.ly. “It’s not to say that Bitcoin’s not profitable, but it gives them a different type of income stream.”
One mining heavyweight following the AI trend is TeraWulf, a publicly traded company based in Easton, Maryland, which is transitioning some of its Bitcoin mining operations to serve AI companies.
The company has no physical data centers or mining operations in Maryland, as miners typically seek the lowest-cost power, and the state isn’t a top contender.
But the dozens of Bitcoin companies headquartered in Maryland are still well-positioned to benefit from the industry’s new strategy. They can take advantage of cheaper power and former industrial sites suitable for data centers in nearby states.
“Generally, Bitcoin miners have been great at finding land that has underutilized or stranded capacity for something that used to be there,” Dan Lawrence, CEO at an energy management company OBM, said. He added that he is unaware of any industrial mining facilities in Maryland.
Still, Bitcoin mining in places like Pennsylvania — which hosts many mining operations — impacts Maryland. Both are part of PJM Interconnection, the regional grid operator whose decisions influence electricity prices across its territory.
FAQ: What is cryptocurrency mining?
What is cryptocurrency mining?
Mining keeps the cryptocurrency network running. Specialized computers, called miners, race to solve complex puzzles that verify transactions and add them to the blockchain, a public financial ledger for currencies like Bitcoin.
Every time a puzzle is solved, the network updates with the new block of transactions.
Miners are rewarded with new Bitcoins for their work, creating an incentive to keep the network secure. The more miners competing, the harder the puzzles become, and the safer the system is from fraud or tampering.
Is all cryptocurrency mined?
No, but the vast majority is.
Bitcoin is by far the most popular cryptocurrency, with the largest market cap at $1.94 trillion. It must be mined to validate transactions and prevent double-spending. Ethereum, the next most popular cryptocurrency, no longer requires mining after switching to a new verification model in 2022.
Other cryptocurrencies that require mining include Litecoin and Dogecoin, though both see significantly less usage than Bitcoin.
Are there smaller ways to mine crypto?
At the smallest scale, Bitcoin mining can happen at home. Hobbyists may repurpose a home computer, but running an ASIC machine designed specifically for Bitcoin mining is far more profitable. These setups are highly sensitive to electricity costs, making earnings inconsistent and challenging for home miners.
How does mining happen today?
Most mining today happens at the industrial scale. Large operators run thousands of ASIC machines in data centers optimized for cheap power and cooling, giving them a major cost advantage over at-home miners.
How much energy does cryptomining really use?
The Biden administration began requiring some miners to report their energy use. The Energy Information Administration found that in 2023, just 137 mining facilities accounted for roughly 2.3% of the nation’s total electricity demand, or about the same amount as the entire state of West Virginia.
Chasing the next big cash-in
Bitcoin once dominated the tech conversation, but after ChatGPT launched in November 2022, AI quickly took over, with Google searches for AI surpassing bitcoin and crypto that year.
The early-2020s Bitcoin hype drove major infrastructure buildout, fueled largely by China’s 2021 ban on mining. That shift created opportunities for US operations, and by the end of 2024, the country had emerged as a powerhouse, accounting for around 40% of global Bitcoin mining.
But Bitcoin mining no longer generates the profits it once did. Every four years, the number of Bitcoins miners receive as a reward is halved, and competition on the network has grown exponentially.
The promise of AI-driven returns has buoyed mining companies, with analysts projecting that 20% of global Bitcoin mining power will shift to AI workloads by the end of 2027.
TeraWulf announced plans in August to lease out a data center on its western New York campus to Fluidstack, an AI cloud platform, with support from Google. The company is also partnering with Fluidstack to develop an AI data center in Texas.
Since the announcements, TeraWulf’s stock price has skyrocketed, with hedge funds naming it one of the top stocks to watch this month, according to financial news site Insider Monkey.
But the handoff from Bitcoin mining to AI isn’t so simple, requiring large upfront investments to get things in working order.
A tough transition
Mining facilities are optimized for low cost, not the high-performance networking and cooling standards required to run AI at scale.
The ASIC machines used to mine bitcoin can’t actually run AI, meaning operators must replace much of the existing hardware, along with upgrading the facility.
That’s why energy companies are also pivoting to assist.
OBM, a Baltimore-based company, is shifting its business strategy alongside Bitcoin miners. In September, the company announced it would broaden its focus from serving only miners to supporting any energy-intensive operation — including AI data centers.
The company is updating its Foreman platform, once focused solely on mining operations, to help cloud computing companies manage power, too. It works like a dimmer switch, allowing data center operators to manage energy in real time, adjusting consumption based on demand and grid signals.
But unlike Bitcoin mines, AI data centers can’t simply be turned off during peak load periods without major consequences. This raises the stakes for the new buildouts, needing to run 24/7 without blips — or else risk taking down most of the internet.
AI data centers outpace Bitcoin energy consumption
AI data centers likely surpassed Bitcoin mining in overall energy use in 2025, according to reporting by The Verge and energy researchers.
However, measuring the electricity consumption of a single Bitcoin mine against a single AI data center isn’t straightforward as their energy profiles are fundamentally different.
Bitcoin miners can be more flexible, scaling back or pausing operations when electricity prices spike, which eases stress on the grid during peak demand. AI data centers, by contrast, require continuous access to large, stable power supplies to keep GPUs and other high-performance hardware running around the clock.
“It’s not like you’re turning off a web page,” OBM CEO Dan Lawrence told Technical.ly. “If I turn off a Bitcoin miner, Google doesn’t go offline.”
Still, some Maryland Bitcoin miners aren’t planning to shift strategy. Sazmining, founded in Bethesda but largely operating remotely, continues to focus on its mining niche. The company owns four Bitcoin mining data centers across four continents, all powered by renewable energy.
Users buy mining rigs from Sazmining, which hosts and manages them at its facilities, taking a management fee from users’ bitcoin rewards.
As a private company, Sazmining isn’t accountable to investors seeking larger dollar-denominated returns from AI compute data centers, allowing it to stick with its current Bitcoin-generation model instead of pivoting to bring in more cash.
For now, Bitcoin mining will continue with smaller operations, but energy use from data centers across industries remains a persistent concern.
“We see the pivot that’s going on happening with publicly traded mining companies,” Sazmining CEO Kent Halliburton told Technical.ly. “They’ve locked down long-term power contracts, and their customer is, in a lot of ways, the investor community.”
