THE MINING POD: Bitcoin Mining Capital Markets and the AI Bottleneck w/ Christian Lopez

CoinDesk Podcast Network

How valuable are bitcoin miners to hyperscalers? Christian Lopez answers the question and breaks down the current landscape of bitcoin mining capital markets.

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Welcome to The Mining Pod! Today, Christian Lopez, Head of Digital Assets at Cohen and Company Capital Markets, joins us to break down Bitcoin mining's ever-shifting capital market landscape. Lopez explains why there's currently a glut of mining sites on the market, why private miners struggle to secure funding, and why the HPC/AI retrofit narrative is more complex than it seems. We also discuss how potential tariffs might affect mining operations, why Bitcoin mining stocks are correlating differently with Bitcoin than in previous cycles, and the evolving relationship between Bitcoin miners and institutional investors.

- 1.5GW of mining sites currently for sale

- Private miners face nearly impossible fundraising

- Site retrofits for HPC require total rebuilds

- Hash rate correlation with BTC price declining

- Tariffs may increase CapEx by 10-30%

- Hyperscalers want 150MW+ sites near major cities

Timestamps:

00:00 Start

01:47 Current market for miners

04:22 M&A landscape

11:42 Fractal

12:04 AI & HPC hype

14:27 Raising capital right now

17:59 Is retrofitting real?

21:36 Tariffs

26:16 Is capital chasing AI instead of mining?

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