Bitdeer's liquidation of its reserves of 943.1 BTC raises the question: is this a sign of an impending winter for the mining giant, or a breakthrough and rebirth for the AI ​​sector?

On February 21, 2026, Bitdeer, a Singapore-based Bitcoin mining company, released a disruptive weekly report on its official social media. The data showed that as of February 20, 2026, Bitdeer's proprietary Bitcoin holdings (excluding customer deposits) had dropped to zero. During the reporting period, the company produced 189.8 BTC, all of which were sold, resulting in a net reduction of 943.1 BTC, completely emptying its Bitcoin reserves.

This "clearance sale" has caused a major shock in the cryptocurrency mining industry. Of particular note is the dramatic timing of this move: according to the latest data, Bitdeer's self-operated hashrate has just reached 63.2 EH/s, officially surpassing established giant Marathon Digital's 60.4 EH/s to become the world's largest listed self-operated mining company in terms of hashrate.

Possessing the world's largest computing power, yet choosing not to hold a single Bitcoin. This seemingly paradoxical strategic choice not only signals the collapse of the traditional mining companies' "mine-to-hold" (HODL) belief, but also reflects how, under the pressure of extreme computing power economics, leading mining companies are accelerating their transformation into Wall Street-standard corporate financial operations and AI computing power infrastructure providers.

Bitdeer's decision to liquidate its Bitcoin reserves was not due to a bearish outlook, but rather stemmed from the extremely deteriorating fundamentals of the current mining industry. To understand the inevitability of this move, it is necessary to examine the underlying data of the current Bitcoin network.

Based on data from the past two days, the Bitcoin network difficulty surged from 125.86T to 144.39T on February 19th, an increase of 14.72%. This is the largest single increase since May 2021. This difficulty adjustment has completely wiped out all the operational breathing room miners gained earlier this year. The dramatic increase in network difficulty means that mining companies need to invest more computing power and electricity costs to maintain their original output share.

Even more devastating is the collapse of Hashprice (the price of computing power). Hashprice is the core quantitative indicator for measuring miners' profitability, representing the expected fiat currency revenue generated per unit of computing power (usually 1 PH/s) per day. Caught between a surge in network difficulty and volatile cryptocurrency prices, the network's Hashprice has plummeted to less than $30/PH/s/day. This figure is nearing its all-time low.

With Hashprice falling below $30, most mining rigs using older models or with electricity costs exceeding $0.06/kWh are on the verge of shutting down due to the low price, and some are even operating at a loss. For a giant like Bitdeer, although it has economies of scale and certain energy cost advantages, its extremely compressed profit margins make it impossible for it to continue to bear the risk of anchoring its assets to a single, highly volatile crypto asset.

In today's environment of high capital costs, holding Bitcoin represents a decision with significant opportunity costs for mining companies. Every BTC hoarded means a reduction in cash flow available for expanding production, upgrading equipment, or repaying debt. In a period of extremely compressed profit margins, "cash is king" has replaced "holding crypto is king," and liquidating holdings is the most direct defense against liquidity shortages.

Wall Street Financial Techniques: Convertible Bonds and Defensive Debt Restructuring

Faced with declining revenue from computing power, Bitdeer's solution goes beyond simply selling Bitcoin; its actions in the capital markets demonstrate highly sophisticated financial engineering capabilities. On February 20, Bitdeer announced an expansion of its private placement of convertible senior notes to $325 million, with the transaction expected to close on February 24. Initial purchasers also have an option to purchase an additional $50 million in notes.

This $375 million financing was meticulously designed in its use of funds, representing a textbook example of defensive balance sheet restructuring.

Debt Renewal and Repurchase ($138.2 million): Bitdeer will use $138.2 million to repurchase its existing 5.25% convertible senior notes maturing in 2029. This "refinancing" operation, in the current complex interest rate environment, is essentially aimed at optimizing its capital structure, extending debt duration, and securing a more robust cash flow runway for the company's future strategic transformation. During periods of low hashrates, alleviating short-term debt repayment pressure is crucial for the company's survival.

Capped Call Transactions ($29.2 million): Bitdeer allocated $29.2 million for capped call transactions. This is a highly specialized derivatives hedging strategy. Convertible bonds, due to their conversion rights, could lead to an increase in total share capital if Bitdeer's stock price surges in the future, thus severely diluting the equity of existing shareholders.

The cap option acts as a form of "dilution protection insurance." By purchasing a combination of call options, when the stock price rises within a specific range, the company can use the option gains to offset the equity dilution effect of bond conversion. This sends a clear signal to the market: management is confident in the company's long-term market capitalization and is committed to protecting the interests of existing shareholders.

This complex combination of strategies indicates that Bitdeer's financial strategy has moved beyond the early, chaotic stage of the crypto industry and entered a period of sophisticated capital operations comparable to top Nasdaq tech companies.

After deducting the costs of debt restructuring and option hedging, the remaining hundreds of millions of dollars raised, along with the cash obtained from selling Bitcoin, reveal Bitdeer's true ambition: to shed its "pure Bitcoin mining company" label and fully enter the fields of high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) cloud services.

Amid the surge in generative AI, the global computing power market is facing an unprecedented supply-demand imbalance. The training and inference of large AI models require massive computing power clusters, which in turn place huge throughput demands on energy infrastructure (electricity and data center cooling).

Bitcoin mining companies possess a unique arbitrage advantage within this macroeconomic context. Mining companies are essentially energy arbitrageurs, controlling the world's cheapest and largest-scale electricity resources, as well as highly scalable data center land. Bitdeer has explicitly stated that the new funds will be used for:

• Expand the scale of HPC and AI cloud businesses.
• Develop proprietary ASIC mining equipment (achieve vertical integration of the hardware supply chain and reduce capital expenditure (Capex)).
• Expand the high-standard data center.

Transforming or upgrading low-profit-margin Bitcoin computing infrastructure into high-margin, high-stable-cash-flow AI data centers is currently the core transformation narrative for large mining companies. AI clients typically sign long-term, fixed-rate service contracts (PPAs, etc.), which contrasts sharply with the Bitcoin mining revenue model, which fluctuates wildly daily with hash prices.

By liquidating its Bitcoin holdings and issuing convertible bonds, Bitdeer is essentially using its inefficient past (hoarding Bitcoin) to invest in a more certain future (AI infrastructure).

Bitdeer topped the global hashrate rankings with 63.2 EH/s, but simultaneously set a record of "zero coin holdings." This phenomenon signifies a fundamental divergence in the business models of listed mining companies worldwide.

Under this logic, having the world's largest computing power doesn't mean accumulating the most cryptocurrency; rather, it means possessing the largest cash flow generator and the most massive energy capacity. When the profits generated by this machine fall below a certain threshold, the most rational choice, in line with quantitative and capital allocation principles, is to unhesitatingly invest capital in the AI ​​sector, which offers higher returns and greater opportunities in the current era.

In the challenging post-halving cycle of 2026, blindly hoarding cryptocurrencies is no longer a panacea. For investors in the financial markets, this is no longer a story about "mining," but a hardcore narrative about energy, computing power allocation, and the efficiency of Wall Street capital.