Miners who treat their Bitcoin holdings as a working asset rather than a passive reserve “will carry a structural edge into the next halving,” says Wintermute. Many Bitcoin miners are struggling to turn a profit this market cycle due to diminishing returns, so they may need to pivot to artificial intelligence hosting or put their holdings to work to generate yields, says market maker Wintermute. Wintermute said in a blog post on Thursday that Bitcoin (BTC) miners have spent years building large-scale power infrastructure in low-cost energy markets, and they now find themselves “sitting on exactly what the AI industry needs most urgently and cannot easily replicate.” It said that Bitcoin mining is a “structurally rigid business model,” and while the AI pivot is a compelling one, it is also a “drastic and capital-intensive step.” Read more
The iShares Staked Ethereum Trust will distribute staking rewards on a monthly basis from institutional-grade Ethereum validators run by Figment, Galaxy Digital and Attestant. BlackRock’s staked Ethereum exchange-traded fund has tallied $15.5 million in trading volume on its first trading day, which a market analyst described as “very, very solid” despite falling short of two similar Solana staking products that launched last year. Nasdaq data shows the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB) had 592,804 shares traded on its debut on Thursday, with Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noting on X that the product turned over around $15.5 million. “Very, very solid for a day 1 ETF launch,” Seyffart said. Read more