Bitcoin Miners’ Exodus: A Tale of Golden Dreams Dashed

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In the shadow of a crumbling edifice, where once stood the altar of digital gold, a lone voice cuts through the din-a voice both prophet and jester. Jacob King, CEO of SwanDesk and self-proclaimed Cassandra of crypto, declares that the corporate world has abandoned its Bitcoin altars in a frenzy. “A 37% plunge in exposure,” he proclaims, as if reciting the fall of Babylon. Three months, he says, have brought the largest downturn in history. One wonders if he’s tallying the collapse of hubris or merely the price of a bad bet.

As if to underscore his grim prophecy, Bitdeer-Singapore’s own digital Midas-has liquidated its entire Bitcoin treasury. The once-mighty hoard of 2,000 BTC, now reduced to zero, lies scattered like ashes in the wind. A single week, they sold 1,132.9 BTC, including every last mined coin. One imagines the executives clinking glasses over the ruins, toast to the alchemy of AI.

Bitdeer Liquidates Entire BTC Reserve

From the heights of 2,000 BTC in 2026, the descent was methodical, almost ritualistic. By January, 1,530 BTC remained; by February 13, 943.1. Then, in a week’s time, the curtain fell. Zero. The company, flush with $325 million in convertible notes and $43.7 million in equity, now chases AI data centers and cloud growth. A pivot, they call it. A renaissance. Or perhaps, as history might whisper, a desperate flight from a sinking ship.

‘Bitcoin Is a Failed Experiment’

King, ever the bard of the bear market, frames this exodus as the death knell of corporate Bitcoin. “A failed experiment,” he intones, “where greed met folly.” Companies, he laments, sought quick fiat gains and naive investors to prop up their flailing stocks. Instead, they found only the cold embrace of reality. “They’re jumping ship,” he adds, as if describing a modern-day Icarus, wings of wax melting in the sun of hubris.

“Bitcoin is a failed experiment. Companies bought in because they thought they could make some quick fiat gains and it would lure new dumb money into their failing stock, but it backfired on both. They’re now jumping ship as quick as they can,” he added.

And yet, one cannot help but chuckle at the irony. The same companies that once hailed Bitcoin as the future now brand it a relic. The alchemists of the digital age, having mastered the art of turning promise into profit, now turn to AI’s gilded chalice. A noble pivot, or merely the latest fad?

Are Bitcoin Mining Companies Abandoning the HODL Strategy?

Bitdeer is not alone. Cango, in a single stroke, dumped 4,451 BTC-$305 million-to fund its AI ambitions. Riot Platforms followed suit with $200 million. Bitfarms, once the self-styled “Bitcoin company,” has shed its branding like a snake shedding skin. Now, they too chase AI’s siren song. The numbers are telling: 70% of top miners now earn AI revenue, a 3-25x return per kilowatt. Bitcoin’s meager margins pale in comparison. Perhaps the miners, weary of the Sisyphean task of hashing, have finally traded their pickaxes for servers.

What Bitcoin’s Bear Market Means for Treasury Companies in 2026

Bitcoin, now trading at $66,272, lingers below its October 2025 peak. The $77,000 to $87,000 production cost looms like a specter. ETF outflows, nearing $4 billion in five weeks, echo the panic of a crowd fleeing a burning theater. Yet Bernstein, the oracle of optimism, still predicts $150,000 by year-end. A “weakest bear case,” they call it. For miners drowning in debt, patience may be a luxury they can no longer afford. After all, what is a golden goose but a bird that lays eggs-and eventually, demands to be fed?

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2026-02-23 16:48