Wu Says May Mining News: Hut 8 Signs a $9.8 Billion AI Deal, Bit Deer Computing Power Up 400% Year Over Year, and More

Author | Wu Says Blockchain

1、

According to Bitcoin Laws, progress has been made on New Hampshire’s “Blockchain Fundamentals” Bill HB639. The state House and Senate have reached an agreement on a compromise version. Previously, the two chambers passed different versions of the bill; the unified version will protect rights related to crypto payments, running nodes, and mining.

2、

The Russian government is expanding the scope of information that miners and operators of mining infrastructure must submit to tax authorities. Under the new decree, network addresses used for mining equipment (ASIC miners) will be added to miners’ and operators’ national registry information. The Russian Ministry of Finance says the measure will help streamline the regulation of digital asset trading and investigations into violations, and will also make it easier for grid operators to monitor the infrastructure load in areas where miners are densely concentrated. Under current regulations, Russian miners are already required to regularly update information including the miner manufacturers, models, serial numbers, algorithms, hash rate, power consumption, operating modes, mined coin types, output amounts, mining pools, and online statistics links. (Bits Media)

3、

CriptoNoticias reports that on May 18, Venezuelan authorities seized a Bitcoin mining farm in the San Vicente Industrial Zone of Maracay City, Aragua State. The site had about 4,000 ASIC miners on site, mainly MicroBT Whatsminer M30S units, and was equipped with industrial cooling systems. Officials said the farm was operating “illegally,” consuming about 8 to 10 MW of electricity and affecting the national power system. The report says Venezuela’s energy department reaffirmed a nationwide complete ban on Bitcoin mining on May 7.

4、

As Venezuela’s electricity demand hits a nine-year high, the government issued a statement reaffirming the nationwide ban on cryptocurrency mining. Data shows that due to factors including hot weather, the country’s grid demand surged to 15,579 megawatts (MW) on May 7. Venezuelan authorities stated clearly that they will impose legal sanctions on individuals involved in illegal digital mining and have developed supporting supervision plans to strictly implement the ban. (Bitcoin com)

5、

Livecoins reports that on May 20, Brazil’s São Paulo State Property Crime Investigation Department (DEIC) and the power company CPFL Piratininga seized about 1,400 Bitcoin mining machines suspected of operating through electricity theft in Jundiaí and Louveira. CPFL said the relevant equipment is powered by nine three-phase transformers with a total capacity of 8,470 kVA. Preliminary estimates put the stolen electricity at about 2 GWh, enough to supply roughly 2,000 households for a month. The report says Brazil does not ban Bitcoin mining; this action mainly targets alleged power theft.

6、

The Brazilian Foreign Trade Chamber (Gecex) published new rules in the Official Gazette (DOU), approving an exemption from import taxes for certain Bitcoin mining cooling equipment. The policy aims to simplify the process for bringing high-power liquid cooling systems used for mobile data centers into Brazil, covering equipment with a maximum electrical power of 1,700 kW and heat capacity exceeding 1,000 kW. The tax benefit is specifically for equipment designed for the SHA256 algorithm (such as Bitcoin mining) and is valid until the end of April 2028.

7、

The Russian State Duma Committee has recommended passing a bill on criminal liability for illegal cryptocurrency mining at first reading. The bill intends to categorize unregistered mining and the unlicensed provision of mining infrastructure under the Criminal Code. Depending on the severity of the circumstances, entities with illegal income exceeding 13 million rubles (about $140,000) could face up to 5 years in prison, and all illegally mined crypto assets will be confiscated. According to official data, there are currently about 50,000 mining entities in Russia, but fewer than 1,500 are legally registered; the new law aims to force illegal miners to become compliant. (Bits media)

8、

On May 20, according to Decrypt, South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed Senate Bill 163, officially making it law. The bill bans the state from using any central bank digital currency (CBDC) and also prohibits the state government from participating in CBDC testing. At the same time, it allows individuals and businesses to accept digital assets for the purchase of legitimate goods or services and to hold digital assets in self-custody wallets or hardware wallets.

The bill also protects digital asset mining businesses that meet requirements for industrial land, noise, and the power grid, and provides that miners, node operators, and blockchain software developers do not need money transmission licenses. (Decrypt)

9、

The New Times reports that on May 5, Rwanda’s parliament approved a draft law to govern virtual assets, which would establish a formal licensing and regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. The report says the Capital Markets Authority of Rwanda will serve as the primary regulator, while the National Bank is responsible for coordination and oversight at the level of financial stability. Companies operating virtual asset services without a license may face fines of up to approximately $68,000, while individuals operating without a license may face fines of about $21,000 to $34,000, 3 to 5 years of imprisonment, or both. Illegal payment services, crypto ATMs, mining, and coin-mixing services will also be punished.

10、

According to Zhejiang Daily, Ningbo Customs Anti-Smuggling Bureau recently uncovered multiple cases involving the smuggling of virtual currency mining machines, dismantling several criminal groups and seizing more than 400 machines including Ant L9 and Binghe KS3 models. The report says the criminal groups disassembled the miners and falsely declared them under descriptions such as “industrial blocking devices,” smuggling them into the country via international express channels through ports including Ningbo and Guangzhou. They were then reassembled and sold domestically or sent to mining farms in places such as Xinjiang and Hunan. Investigators said the groups also used USDT for cross-border payment settlement to evade financial oversight.

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Analysts at Bernstein believe that as demand for AI data centers is rising rapidly, Bitcoin mining companies are shifting from mining to providing power for AI infrastructure and to taking on compute-capacity roles. Bernstein gives “outperform” ratings to IREN, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, and Core Scientific, and maintains a “market perform” rating for MARA Holdings. The report states that the scale of AI infrastructure deals already announced exceeds $9 billion, covering about 3.7GW of power capacity. Meanwhile, Bitcoin miners collectively control more than 27GW of planned power capacity. In the context of tight access to the U.S. power grid and the possibility that a single GW-scale project may need nearly 50 months to queue, these companies have an advantage. (The Block)

12、

A newly submitted U.S. SEC 13F filing by former OpenAI researcher Leopold Aschenbrenner shows that his disclosed holdings increased from $5.5 billion at the end of 2025 to $13.67 billion, with heavy bets on Bitcoin mining firms and AI infrastructure companies. His main long positions include IREN, Core Scientific, Riot Platforms, CleanSpark, Bitfarms, Bitdeer, and Hive Digital. At the same time, he established an approximately $7.46 billion position in chip-stock put options, including large short positions on NVIDIA, Oracle, Broadcom, and the VanEck Semiconductor ETF. (CoinDesk)

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Crypto mining firm Riot Platforms announced 2026 Q1 revenue of $167 million, of which data center business revenue was $33.2 million, marking its first contribution to revenue. The quarter produced 1,473 BTC, with an estimated mining cost of about $44.6k per BTC. Meanwhile, AMD exercised an additional 25MW expansion option, increasing contracted hash rate capacity to 50MW. The company said it is transitioning from mining to data center operations, and it maintains a reserve of approximately 15,679 BTC.

14、

Bitcoin miner MARA announced its preliminary unaudited results for 2026’s first quarter. Quarterly revenue was $174.6 million, down 18% year over year. Net loss was about $1.3 billion, mainly due to fair value adjustments to Bitcoin assets. As of the end of the quarter, the company held 35,303 BTC. At the same time, MARA said it is advancing its energy and data infrastructure buildout, including the acquisition of Long Ridge Energy it previously announced, and continuing to expand AI and high-performance computing (HPC)-related businesses.

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Bitcoin miner CleanSpark released its results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2026 as of March 31, 2026. Quarterly revenue was $136.4 million, down 24.9% year over year. Net loss widened to $378.3 million; the net loss in the same period last year was $138.8 million. As of the end of the quarter, the company’s total HODL value was $925.2 million, including both liquid and illiquid Bitcoin assets, as well as Bitcoin held by counterparties under custody arrangements due to collateral arrangements. Cash reserves were $260.3 million, total assets were about $2.9 billion, and total long-term debt was about $1.8 billion. At the same time, CleanSpark said it has received ERCOT approval for 585 MW of power capacity, and it is advancing AI/HPC-related infrastructure and site development.

16、

Bitcoin miner Core Scientific (CORZ) released its Q1 2026 financial report showing total revenue of $115.2 million for the quarter, up 45% year over year. Gross profit was $30.1 million, far higher than the $8.2 million in the same quarter last year. Managed services revenue surged from $8.6 million in the same period last year to $77.5 million, while self-mining revenue fell to $30.1 million due to the strategic transition and a decline in coin prices. Despite the increase in performance, the company still recorded a net loss of $347.2 million (net profit of $576.3 million in the same period last year), mainly due to $266.5 million in non-cash impairment charges and a $30.8 million loss related to changes in the fair value of warrants. The company’s stock price fell 7% after Wednesday’s close.

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Canaan Technology released its unaudited Q1 2026 financial report. Total revenue was $62.7 million, in line with earlier guidance. Net loss was $88.7 million, and adjusted EBITDA loss was $76.3 million. The company said that as of March 31, its crypto reserves increased to 1,807.60 BTC and 3,951.53 ETH, and it produced 257 BTC in the first quarter. The financial report shows that Canaan’s Q1 product sales revenue was $42.9 million, its self-mining revenue was $19.1 million, cost of revenue was $85.6 million, and gross loss was $22.9 million.

18、

Bitcoin miners and data center operator TeraWulf reported a net loss of approximately $427 million in Q1 2026, higher than the $61.4 million in the same period last year. Quarterly revenue was about $34 million, with roughly 60% from AI high-performance computing (HPC) business. Related revenue increased 117% quarter over quarter to about $21 million, while Bitcoin mining revenue decreased 50% quarter over quarter to about $13 million. The company said its future revenue mix will shift more toward long-term contracts driven AI compute business to reduce dependence on the volatility of Bitcoin mining. (Decrypt)

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Bitcoin miner and cloud mining service provider BitFuFu released its unaudited Q1 2026 financial report. Q1 total revenue was $72.66 million, down 6.8% year over year. Net loss was $35 million; net loss in the same period last year was $16.9 million. The company said that this quarter recorded a fair value loss of $35.6 million on digital assets and related receivables/payables. As of March 31, BitFuFu held 1,794 BTC, with total cash and digital assets of $141.5 million.

20、

Keel Infrastructure (formerly Bitfarms) announced its Q1 2026 results. Quarterly revenue was approximately $37 million, down 23% year over year. Net loss widened to $145 million, mainly due to losses related to changes in the fair value of digital assets and the termination of Macquarie credit facilities. Keel said the company has completed its transition from a Canadian Bitcoin miner to a U.S. AI/HPC infrastructure developer and has sold non-core assets such as the Paraguay mining farm. As of May 8, the company’s liquidity was about $533 million, including $336 million in cash and approximately $197 million in unpledged Bitcoin assets. It is currently advancing three data center project developments in Pennsylvania and Washington in the United States. (Decrypt)

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According to Bloomberg, American Bitcoin Corp., a Bitcoin miner backed by the Trump family, recorded a loss for the second consecutive quarter. Its net loss in Q1 2026 was about $82 million, up from $59 million in the prior quarter. Revenue fell about 20% to $62 million, mainly due to a decline in average Bitcoin average mining revenue per coin and a drop in the value of its Bitcoin holdings. The company said it added about 1,600 BTC during the first quarter, increasing its Bitcoin holdings by roughly 30%, and it continued to buy and add through Treasury purchases. After American Bitcoin listed on Nasdaq in September 2025, its share price has fallen nearly 90% from its peak.

22、

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 announced it has signed a 15-year, $9.8 billion lease agreement for Phase 1 of its Beacon Point AI data center campus in Nueces County, Texas. The agreement involves 352 MW of IT capacity. The tenant is a high-investment-grade company whose name was not disclosed, and it will use the facility to support large-scale AI training and inference workload. The agreement increases Hut 8’s contracted AI data center capacity to 597 MW. The total contract value is about $16.8 billion, with average annual net operating income of about $1.1 billion. AEP Texas has signed interconnection agreements for the entire 1,000 MW campus, with preliminary energization expected in early Q1 2027. The first data hall is expected to be delivered in the third quarter of the same year. (Decrypt)

23、

Core Scientific announced it will acquire Oklahoma-based Bitcoin miner Polaris DS LLC for $421 million. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 2026, subject to regulatory approval. Polaris owns 440 MW of contracted power via Oklahoma Gas & Electric. Its 40-acre campus has been energized and is operating, and it is adjacent to Core Scientific’s operations in Muskogee. Core Scientific said the transaction will help it rapidly expand its AI business and support converting and expanding its existing Bitcoin mining facilities into high-density hosting services for AI and compute-intensive workloads. (The Block)

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Bitcoin miner HIVE Digital announced it will spend $58 million to acquire approximately 25 acres of land in Toronto for building industrial-grade AI data centers. The project is expected to support about 320MW of capacity and more than 100,000 GPUs. HIVE said this move is an important step in its transition from pure Bitcoin mining to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure.

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Bitcoin miner IREN announced plans to issue $2 billion in 2033-maturity convertible preferred notes. The funds will be used for data center expansion, AI and HPC infrastructure construction, debt repayment, and general corporate purposes. IREN said the offering is targeted at qualified institutional buyers and plans to grant initial purchasers an additional $300 million purchase option.

26、

CleanSpark released its unaudited Bitcoin mining and operations update for April 2026. In April, it produced 640 BTC, with the highest single-day output of 22.38 BTC and average daily output of 21.33 BTC. Cumulative production for 2026 totaled 2,439 BTC. CleanSpark sold 53 spot BTC, 550 BTC related to call option exercises, and 145 BTC related to delta-neutral basis trading in April, with an average selling price of $74,807. As of April 30, total BTC holdings were 13,453, including 1,565 BTC as collateral or receivables, all related to derivatives trading.

27、

Bitdeer (BTDR) released its April 2026 production and operations update. Its self-mined hash rate reached 65.5 EH/s, up 400% year over year. It mined 783 BTC, up 372% for the month. Its new generation SEALMINER A4 miners have entered mass production, with an energy efficiency of 9.45 J/TH. In addition, Bitdeer’s hosting lease agreement in Tydal, Norway is in an advanced stage of negotiations. AI Cloud annual recurring revenue (ARR) reached $69 million, up 60% month over month, with utilization at 92%.

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According to TheMinerMag, BitFuFu released its April 2026 operational data. In the month, its Bitcoin output was 145 BTC, down about 32% from March’s 214 BTC, mainly due to the impact of the shutdown of its mining facility in Ethiopia and the company’s reduction in third-party hash rate purchases. By the end of April, BitFuFu managed total hash rate of 22.4 EH/s, down 13.5% month over month, while its self-mined hash rate remained unchanged at 3.3 EH/s. The company said its average self-mining cash cost in April was about $59k per Bitcoin. In the same period, its Bitcoin holdings increased from 1,794 to 1,812 BTC.

29、

Cango announced its April 2026 operational update, mining 230.04 BTC, all from self-operated mining facilities. Its average cash cost per BTC was about $68,061. As of the end of April, the company’s total operational hash rate was 31.58 EH/s, including 20.43 EH/s from self-operated capacity and 11.15 EH/s from hash rate leasing. Total BTC holdings were 1,057.46 BTC. Cango is continuing to phase out some older S19 miners and gradually deploy S21 series equipment.

30、

Italian energy company Alps is restarting a dormant 127 MW gas-fired thermal power plant in Cochabamba Cercado, Bolivia, together with Qurubiqa, and converting it into a Bitcoin mining project. The project abandons the earlier model that heavily relied on government natural gas subsidies in Bolivia, and instead adopts a commercial operation fully denominated in U.S. dollars. Currently, the project has deployed 27 MW of electricity, and plans to gradually increase capacity to fully utilize the plant’s 127 MW installed capacity. However, as Bolivia’s natural gas reserves shrink, ensuring a continuous and economical supply of fuel will be a key long-term challenge for this mining project.

31、

Seven of the world’s leading Bitcoin mining organizations—Antpool, F2Pool, Foundry, Spiderpool, Block, MARA Foundation, and DMND—have officially joined the Stratum V2 working group, marking that Bitcoin mining is accelerating its shift to a new generation of open-source protocol. Compared with the current V1 version in which mining pools control transaction packaging, Stratum V2 introduces end-to-end encryption. This not only reduces bandwidth usage (down 60% on the pool side and down 70% on the miner side) and lowers the risk of hash rate hijacking, but also allows miners to build their own block templates. Tests show that with lower latency and better fee selection, the V2 protocol can increase miner earnings by up to 7.4%. (Bitcoin com)

32、

Bitcoin miner Bitdeer announced that its Chief Financial Officer, Jianchun Liu, will step down at the end of June and move into a Chief Advisor role. Former Corsair Gaming CFO Michael Potter will succeed him. Bitdeer said Jianchun Liu resigned for personal reasons. Michael Potter served as CFO of Corsair Gaming from 2019 to 2025 and participated in the company’s 2020 IPO. Previously, he also held senior positions at technology and semiconductor companies including Lattice Semiconductor, Honeywell, NeoPhotonics, and STATS ChipPAC. Bitdeer is recently expanding from Bitcoin mining into AI and cloud computing infrastructure, and its annualized AI cloud revenue has recently approached $70 million. (The Block)

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Russian police and the Federal Security Service (FSB) seized an underground crypto mining farm near Yegoryevsk in the Moscow region and detained a 68-year-old local man. Police said the man deployed 30 mining machines on his property in Pokhinki village, causing overloads on the nearby power grid, voltage fluctuations in residents’ homes, and damage to appliances, resulting in property losses of more than 4 million rubles. Two routers, one laptop, one mobile phone, and eight fans were also found at the scene. The man is currently under house arrest.

34、

According to FT, MARA Holdings’ latest DEF14A filing shows that, under its security plan, the company paid about $4.3 million in personal security-related expenses for CEO Fred Thiel, including a one-time cost of $430,000 for armored vehicle blast protection and $58,000 for home security installation. At the same time, it paid about $3.946 million in personal security expenses for CFO Salman Khan, including about $438,000 for armored vehicle blast protection. MARA’s board said that because the company publicly holds a large amount of Bitcoin assets, executives have faced “direct security threats” in the long term.

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Nine residents in Texas filed a lawsuit against Bitcoin miner MARA Holdings, accusing that its Granbury facility has produced long-term noise, vibration, and low-frequency sound, interfering with daily life and affecting health and property values, seeking more than $1 million in damages. The case comes as mining firms accelerate their transition to AI and high-performance computing, with data centers across the U.S. facing regulatory and community pressure regarding noise, power, and resource consumption. (Decrypt)

36、

Nasdaq-listed pharmaceutical company Shuttle Pharmaceuticals Holdings has signed a definitive acquisition agreement to acquire Dogecoin miner United Dogecoin, which it will integrate into a wholly owned subsidiary. The transaction is also supported by $11 million in PIPE financing and is expected to be completed on May 4, 2026. United Dogecoin plans to purchase up to 3,000 new-generation ElphaPex miners, to be deployed within 60 days. It will provide up to 43,200 GH/s of hash rate, representing approximately 1.5% of the current global Dogecoin mining hash rate. (Newsfile)