Bitcoin retests $64,000 as bitcoin mining stocks accelerate AI/HPC transitions

Edwin Ziheng Wang

Tue, February 24, 2026 at 1:25 AM GMT+9 2 min read

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BTC-USD

-4.20%

Bitcoin tested the $64,000 support level on Monday as the cryptocurrency continued a 26.41% monthly drawdown. As bitcoin’s price wanes, bitcoin miners are accelerating their transitions to AI/HPC business lines.

Sellers forced a retest of bitcoin’s $64,000 support zone early Monday morning. Bitcoin previously found a floor at this level on February 6 after suffering one its worst daily selloffs ever. At the time of writing, bitcoin is down 3.7% week-over-week to $65,400.

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Speaking to the drawdown, Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan outlined on Friday that a macroeconomic debasement trade has not yet materially benefited bitcoin’s price. The Bitwise CIO said that institutional players re-entering the market could trigger a definitive shift out of the current bearish market, and that this shift could occur by the second quarter of 2026.

As bitcoin’s price suffers, publicly traded bitcoin miners continue to diversify away from bitcoin mining operations into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) workloads.

MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), for instance, finalized a transaction on Friday to acquire a 64% controlling stake in Exaion, a subsidiary of France’s state-owned electric utility EDF. The transaction faced initial delays over French national sovereignty concerns. The deal includes a strategic partnership with telecommunications billionaire Xavier Niel’s NJJ Capital.

IREN (NASDAQ: IREN) announced on February 13 it will join the MSCI USA Index starting March 2 following a pivot toward AI/HPC infrastructure. IREN inked a capstone deal in November 2025 with Microsoft worth $9.7 billion over five years.

Activist investors are currently pressuring Riot (NASDAQ: RIOT) to force an AI/HPC transition. Starboard Value published a letter to Riot leadership last Wednesday detailing a strategic restructuring meant to unlock shareholder value. Starboard argues shifting power capacity toward AI/HPC could revalue Riot shares between $23.55 and $52.60. Previously, Riot signed a 10-year, $311 million HPC deal with graphics cards producer AMD.

Header image by by Arturo Añez via Unsplash.

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