Bitcoin miners' move into AI is creating a new market for trading computing power

Not everyone is moving away from bitcoin mining. Nasdaq-listed NIP Group (NIPG) announced plans last week to essentially increase its mining capacity by about 48%. The company said it expects to generate about 195 bitcoin a month at full deployment.

Moving into AI also requires more than access to electricity. Ethan Vera, Luxor's chief operating officer, told CoinDesk that its software business works with bitcoin miners representing nearly two gigawatts of power capacity.

After assessing more than half that capacity, Luxor found that most sites had sufficient electricity and fiber connections for AI workloads but would require new data centers.