Public Bitcoin Miners Shift to AI as Fees Fall to 2019 Lows

Public Bitcoin miners sold a record 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 and have begun reallocating capital into AI and high-performance computing projects. The asset sales followed a sharp decline in miner fee income to levels not seen since 2019.

On-chain data from Glassnode shows total miner revenue below $25 million per day on a seven-day moving average. That daily revenue level last appeared during the late-summer 2024 slump, the 2023 bear-market floor, and the summer 2021 crash.

Capriole Investments reports that trailing 12-month fee income for miners has fallen to about $114 million, the weakest reading since 2019. In 2019 Bitcoin traded near $3,400; by contrast, the network’s token has traded at much higher nominal prices in recent years.

Three factors have reduced miner income. The April 2024 halving cut the block subsidy to 3.125 BTC per block. Bitcoin’s price sits roughly 50% below its October 2025 all-time high, lowering dollar-denominated returns. Transaction fees, which users pay to prioritize transfers, have often contributed less than 1% of block rewards since the halving.

The revenue squeeze has shown up on corporate balance sheets. Public mining companies collectively liquidated 32,000 BTC in Q1 2026, a volume larger than total liquidations for all of 2025. Company filings and contract announcements indicate more than $70 billion in AI and high-performance computing agreements arranged by mining firms. Several leading public miners report receiving revenue from AI infrastructure services.

Charles Edwards, founder of Capriole Investments, described the fee chart as a concerning long-term metric and linked falling fees, repeated halvings and rising AI compute demand as factors behind the corporate shifts.

Network security metrics present a mixed picture. Mean hash rate remains near 850 to 900 exahashes per second, down from a late-2025 peak above 1.1 zettahashes but higher than at the April 2024 halving. The protocol’s two-week difficulty recalibration has produced occasional drops that improve margins for operators who remain active on the network.

Some firms have changed treasury policies to allow broader coin sales. Marathon Digital Holdings amended its policy in 2026 to permit selling coins from its entire balance-sheet reserve for operational or investment purposes, following multiple quarters of asset sales.

Historically, episodes of very low miner fees have often appeared near market bottoms, when user activity and transaction demand were weakest. Analysts note that past patterns show lower fees and miner revenue clustering around cycle lows, while industry filings document ongoing capital shifts into AI and high-performance computing.

Data cited in this report come from Glassnode and Capriole Investments and cover on-chain and industry-reported figures for miner revenue, fee income, hash rate and corporate sales through the first quarter of 2026.