Bitcoin mining news: Hashprice plunges to new low, 166 GW load forecast, and Cipher’s $830M Fluidstack extension

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It was a chaotic week across Bitcoin mining and AI infrastructure, marked by Nvidia’s blowout Q3 earnings, a sharp market reversal not a day later, and the most sobering hashprice print in bitcoin mining history.

Meanwhile, a new report suggests U.S. load growth could hit a staggering 166GW by 2030, driven overwhelmingly by AI demand, while Cipher Mining inked an $830 million hosting extension backstopped by Google.

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Hashprice collapses to all-time low

The week opened with unwelcome news: hash price plunged to $36.97 per PH per day, its lowest reading ever recorded, breaking the prior trough of $38/PH/day in August 2024 .

Difficulty ticked down last epoch and is pacing toward another negative adjustment, but relief remains limited. Transaction fees have dried up, ordinals-driven activity has vanished, and the fee market—once the lifeline of miner revenues—is “a barren wasteland,” The Mining Pod hosts said on the latest Mining Pod news roundup.

Despite severe compression in mining economics, global hashrate continues climbing, raising questions about when the long-anticipated capitulation event might arrive.

Nvidia smashes Q3 earnings, then the market flips

Nvidia delivered what should have been a market-moving quarter: revenue up 62%, data-center sales hitting $51.2 billion, and a Q4 forecast of $65 billion (±2%) .

CEO Jensen Huang said the company remains sold out “for the foreseeable future,” and initially markets reacted with enthusiasm: AI stocks, Bitcoin miners, and high-growth tech all surged.

But by Thursday morning, the entire move had been wiped out. Nvidia and its peers retraced the earnings rally within hours, a sign that even stellar chip demand can’t override deeper investor fears around AI payback periods, capital intensity, and market concentration risk.

As noted on the show, if Nvidia can’t hold a market bid for more than five hours, sentiment may be worse than expected .

U.S. load growth blows past 166GW — AI accounts for more than half

A new Grid Strategies report highlighted one of the most staggering energy projections yet:

5-year U.S. load growth forecasts jumped from 24GW (2022) to 166GW (2025) — a nearly 7x increase in three years. According to the report:

• Data centers account for 55% of demand growth (90GW of the 166GW total)

• Total U.S. electricity consumption is expected to rise 32% by 2030

• Six regions drive 80% of the growth: ERCOT, PJM, SPP, MISO, Georgia Power, CAISO — with ERCOT alone at 53GW.

To break down the findings, the pod welcomed Haley Thomson, Director of Energy Trading at Luxor Technology. Thomson described the ERCOT market as entering a new era defined by rising gas prices, a shift toward higher power costs, and unprecedented AI-driven demand for both electrons and molecules.

Even if ERCOT approved all 53GW of requested capacity, there aren’t enough transformers, copper, or transmission lines to build it, she noted. It would require doubling high-voltage transport capacity—“a mega-project” unlikely to be delivered on current timelines .

Large 500MW–1GW data-center builds are now requesting natural-gas supply directly, following the model pioneered by Tesla. If AI companies begin competing with LNG exporters and industrial buyers for gas molecules, the U.S. could face energy scarcity across both electricity and fuel, Thomson warned .

Because 24/7 uptime is structurally impossible at the scale AI demands, Thomson expects “three smaller inference-only data centers” to replace the single large, fully redundant facility model. AI may be forced to follow Bitcoin mining toward co-location with solar and wind, absorbing variable power rather than demanding perfect uptime.

Cipher Mining lands $830M Fluidstack extension, backed by Google

Amid the gloom, one bright spot emerged.

Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) jumped after announcing a 56MW, 10-year hosting extension with Fluidstack, adding $830 million in incremental contract revenue. The deal brings total Fluidstack-related commitments at Cipher to $3.8 billion and will operate out of the company’s Barber Lake site.

The extension includes a $333 million revenue guarantee from Google, mirroring the structure of prior contracts. Cipher is using that backstop to support the issuance of $333 million in senior secured notes at 7.125% due 2030, a tactic also employed recently by TeraWulf in its own contracts with Fluidstack.

Cry Corner: The Financial Times discovers AI FUD

This week’s Cry Corner went to the Financial Times, which published a headline implying Oracle was “underwater” on a $300 billion AI deal after the stock fell $350 billion in market cap. The article’s framing suggested the contract itself had gone bad—when, in reality, the stock simply sold off with the rest of tech

The hosts highlighted the FT’s history of sensational skepticism toward Bitcoin and noted the publication’s pivot toward AI-bubble doomcasting as familiar territory.

Header image by Adam Śmigielski via Unsplash.