Wu Says November Mining News: Bitcoin Mining Profitability Drops to Historic Lows, Malaysia Mining Electricity Theft Exceeds $1.1 Billion, U.S. Entrepreneurs Attempt to Use Mining Heat for Heating

Author | Wu Says Blockchain

Malaysia has seized about 14,000 illegal Bitcoin mining sites over the past five years, with electricity theft causing state-owned power company TNB a cumulative loss of around $1.1 billion. As Bitcoin hit a record high of $126,000 this year and then became more volatile, mining-related electricity theft cases climbed to about 3,000 before October. On November 19, the government set up an inter-agency task force comprising the Ministry of Finance, the central bank, and TNB to study further crackdown measures. Deputy Minister of Energy Transition Akmal stated that illegal mining has threatened the power grid infrastructure and noted that the mobile operations model of many theft sites is showing obvious “syndicate” characteristics. (Bloomberg)

Some U.S. entrepreneurs are attempting to use the excess heat from crypto mining rigs for heating, aiming to reduce energy waste and explore new economic models. Bitcoin mining releases about 100 TWh of heat per year, enough to meet the heating needs of all of Finland, yet most of it is simply vented. New products, such as the $900 HeatTrio heater, combine a mining rig with an electric heater, allowing households to mine while heating their homes. Some businesses have begun deploying mining rigs in car washes, factories, and residences to achieve dual benefits of “mining while heating.” (CNBC)

Bitcoin mining company Bitfury announced a $50 million investment in decentralized, efficient AI computing network Gonka, marking its first investment under last year’s $1 billion “Emerging Technology Initiative.” Gonka, incubated by Product Science, supports any hardware (from a single GPU to data centers) contributing computing power for model training, inference, and scientific computing. Last month, Bitfury disclosed a $12 million strategic investment in Gonka AI’s GNK token.

Bitcoin mining company CleanSpark reported its fiscal 2025 results: annual revenue of $766.3 million, up 102% year-on-year; net profit of $364.5 million, reversing last year’s $146 million loss; and adjusted EBITDA of $823.4 million. The company completed $1.15 billion in 0% convertible bond financing to expand its power and land assets, aiming to evolve from Bitcoin mining to an “integrated computing power platform for AI and BTC.”

Bitcoin miner CleanSpark released its unaudited Bitcoin mining and operations update for the period ending November 30, disclosing a mining output of 587 BTC in November, a year-to-date total of 7,124 BTC in 2025, and a total Bitcoin holding of 13,054 BTC as of November 30.

The Bitcoin mining industry is facing profitability pressures. In October, network hash rate climbed to a record 1.1 ZH/s, but Bitcoin’s price fell to around $81,000, pushing hash price below $35/PH/s. Public miners’ Q3 reports showed a median hash cost of about $44.8/PH/s, meaning even the most efficient miners are barely breaking even. Mining rig payback periods have extended beyond 1,200 days, and financing costs continue to rise. Although miners are accelerating their transition to AI and high-performance computing (HPC), related revenues still cannot offset the sharp decline in Bitcoin mining income. (The Miner Mag)

Bitcoin mining company Bitfury announced the launch of a $1 billion “Ethical Tech and AI” investment initiative, with $200 million to be deployed over the next year and the rest in subsequent years. Bitfury co-founder Val Vavilov stated that AI and decentralized technologies are rapidly converging, and the company will use its capital accumulated from Bitcoin mining and infrastructure to support “mission-driven entrepreneurs.” Bitfury’s planned investment areas include AI, quantum computing, transparent decentralized systems, self-sovereign identity (SSI), and more, which are seen as key infrastructure for the era where AI reality and fiction become indistinguishable. Bitfury spun out mining businesses to incubate Cipher Mining (market cap $5.5 billion) and Hut8 (market cap $4 billion), and founded two AI infrastructure companies, LiquidStack and Axelera AI.

Russian power companies are using AI technology to combat increasingly rampant illegal Bitcoin mining. State-owned grid company Rosseti said it is testing direct integration of AI data analytics into smart meters or portable detection devices to spot abnormal electricity usage, tampering, and suspicious load patterns. Rosseti and the Federal Security Service (FSB) cracked a major electricity theft mining case involving stolen electricity worth over $1.5 million. Those arrested include Maxim Yatsun, son of former Russian presidential candidate Andrey Yatsun. Police say his team forged electricity usage documents and operated large mining rigs in a factory for an extended period and have charged him with “large-scale fraud.” (DL News)

Bitcoin mining company Bitfarms (Nasdaq/TSX: BITF) released its Q3 2025 report, with revenue from continuing operations at $69 million, up 156% year-on-year, and completed a $588 million convertible bond issuance. The company is accelerating its strategic shift from Bitcoin mining to high-performance computing (HPC) and AI infrastructure, planning to convert its Washington facility into an HPC data center supporting liquid-cooled GB300 GPUs, targeting production by the end of 2026, and has signed a $128 million equipment procurement agreement.

NASDAQ-listed Bitcoin miner Bitdeer announced it will raise $400 million through a convertible preferred notes issuance. The company plans to use part of the raised funds, together with simultaneously raised registered direct offering funds, to complete capped call options and repurchase part of its 5.25% convertible bonds due 2029. The remaining funds will be used for data center expansion, ASIC miner R&D and manufacturing, HPC and AI cloud business expansion, and general corporate purposes. Bitdeer stated that the hedging and repurchase operations related to capped call options may impact its common stock price, and the specific issue rate, conversion price, and redemption terms will be determined at pricing.

Seventy percent of the world’s top ten Bitcoin mining companies are relying on AI income to weather the bear market. Seven leading miners (including Marathon, CleanSpark, Iris Energy, TeraWulf, Core Scientific, etc.) have launched or monetized AI/HPC businesses, with the remaining three also planning to do so. AI hosting revenue generally exceeds traditional mining, with annualized income per MW about 50% higher. With power shortages and surging data center demand, miners’ “hash rate rankings” are being replaced by “AI contracts and stable cash flow.” (CryptoSlate)

Bitcoin mining company Bitdeer Technology Group (NASDAQ: BTDR) reported a net loss of $266.7 million in Q3, an increase of about 422% year-on-year, with a per-share loss of $1.28, worse than market expectations. Despite Q3 revenue reaching $169.7 million, nearly tripling compared to about $62 million last year, BTDR shares still closed down about 20% on Monday, erasing recent gains. The company stated it will continue to increase investments in high-performance computing and AI.

Solana mining protocol ORE generated nearly $700,000 in protocol revenue on November 8, setting new highs for three consecutive days. ORE has now accumulated revenue exceeding 26,000 SOL. In late October, ORE launched a new mining mechanism, which has been retweeted multiple times by Solana co-founder toly. The new mechanism introduces a 5x5 grid, where miners compete for block space by deploying SOL, with each round randomly selecting a winning block and distributing rewards, as well as introducing token buybacks and burns. (n2scapital)

Bitcoin miner Hut 8 announced the sale of its four natural gas power plants (totaling 310 MW) in Ontario, Canada, to Canadian-listed power producer TransAlta. Hut 8 stated that the sale aligns with its strategic focus shift to “Bitcoin mining + HPC (high-performance computing) infrastructure.” (The Miner Mag)

Bitfarms announced it will gradually shut down Bitcoin mining operations over the next two years and convert its mining sites into AI and high-performance computing (HPC) data centers. The company stated that its 18 MW Bitcoin mine in Washington State will be the first to complete the conversion, expected to be operational by December 2026, at which point it will be fully dedicated to supporting AI and HPC businesses. CEO Ben Gagnon said the project’s potential returns may surpass the company’s previous Bitcoin mining revenue. The announcement caused the company’s stock price to fall about 18%. (Cointelegraph)

Canaan Inc. released unaudited Q3 2025 financial results: total revenue of $150.5 million, up 104.4% year-on-year; Bitcoin mining revenue reached $30.6 million, up 241.0% year-on-year. As of the end of October 2025, the company’s crypto assets reached a historical high: 1,610 BTC and 3,950 ETH.

Bitcoin miner Bitdeer released its unaudited mining and operations update for October. The report shows proprietary hash rate increased to 41.2 EH/s, with 511 Bitcoins mined in October, up about 13% month-over-month, total Bitcoin holdings rising to 2,233, and total managed hash rate expanding to 55.5 EH/s. The company’s first SEAL04 chip tested at 6–7 J/TH energy efficiency, with plans for mass production in Q1 2026.

Bitdeer’s new mining site in Massillon, Ohio, experienced a fire on November 12, burning down two of its 26 buildings. Bitdeer founder Jihan Wu stated that no injuries occurred, and senior management has rushed to the scene to investigate.

Bitcoin miner Cipher Mining announced a new 10-year HPC hosting agreement with Fluidstack, adding 39 MW of critical IT load (supporting up to 56 MW of new capacity) at its Barber Lake site in Texas, expanding Fluidstack’s lease to cover the site’s full 300 MW. Google also increased its guarantee for Fluidstack’s leasing obligations by $333 million, bringing the total guarantee to $1.73 billion.

Oleg Ogienko, advisor to the Russian State Duma’s cryptocurrency legislative regulatory working group and CEO of Via Numeri, suggested the government grant amnesty to crypto miners using illegally imported mining rigs to encourage legalization and bring them under regulation. Since 2024, Russia has recognized crypto mining as a legal business activity, requiring miners with monthly electricity consumption over 6,000 kWh to register and pay taxes to the Federal Tax Service (FNS), but about 60% of mining companies have not yet registered. Ogienko noted that the lack of an amnesty mechanism for illegally imported equipment is the main reason. Currently, only about 150 mining infrastructure operators and 1,300 related entities are registered.

Canaan Inc. released its Bitcoin mining operations data for October 2025: 92 BTC produced for the month, deployed hash rate reached 9.31 EH/s, with effective operating hash rate at 7.85 EH/s. As of the end of October, Canaan held 1,610 BTC and 3,950 ETH. The company also announced the launch of a natural gas generation pilot project in Canada and unveiled its new Avalon A16 series miners.

Marathon Digital Holdings (MARA) CEO Fred Thiel recently stated that as competition intensifies and energy costs rise, Bitcoin mining profit margins are narrowing, and only miners with low-cost energy control or those transitioning to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) are likely to survive. Thiel noted that some miners have shifted to AI and computing infrastructure, while hardware manufacturers and large institutions’ proprietary hash power are squeezing out small and medium miners. He warned that when Bitcoin’s block reward halves to about 1.5 coins in 2028, if transaction fees or prices do not rise significantly, most miners’ business models will be unsustainable. (CoinDesk)

Bitcoin miner TeraWulf reported Q3 revenue of $50.6 million, up 87% year-on-year, with digital asset revenue of $43.4 million. Although the company mined only 377 Bitcoins this quarter, down from 555 a year earlier, price increases offset the production decline. The company stated that revenue growth also came from hash rate expansion and the launch of AI high-performance computing leasing business. (Cointelegraph)

Bitcoin mining pool DMND has now fully opened registration to all miners after completing a SOC 2 Type 2 audit and supporting Stratum V2. DMND stated that the audit validated the security and compliance standards required for large-scale miners, coupled with a simplified enterprise verification process and “miner-constructed block templates.” Stratum V2 provides a mechanism to protect Bitcoin’s censorship resistance, allowing miners to generate their own block templates when mining with pools that support this mechanism, and reduces hash rate hijacking risk through end-to-end encryption.

Belarus President Lukashenko said the world is rapidly moving away from reliance on the dollar, that cryptocurrency may become an alternative path, and specifically identified crypto mining as a key national electricity usage priority. He stated that although mining is volatile, there is “no need for excessive concern.”

Canaan Inc. announced that it has signed a 4.5 MW miner sales contract with a Japanese power engineering solutions provider, deploying Avalon A1566HA-488T water-cooled miners for real-time grid load adjustment and energy efficiency optimization. The facility is led by a major regional Japanese power company and is expected to be operational by the end of 2025. The miners feature Canaan’s proprietary smart control chip, which can dynamically adjust frequency, voltage, and hash rate via algorithms to maintain load balance under grid fluctuations. The project may involve Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which previously tested Bitcoin mining with surplus renewable energy. This is Japan’s first publicly disclosed government-related Bitcoin mining plan. VanEck Digital Assets Head Matthew Sigel stated that Japan thus becomes the 11th country with government-backed involvement in Bitcoin mining.

Crypto mining rig manufacturer Canaan Inc. (NASDAQ: CAN) announced it has received a strategic investment totaling about $72 million from BH Digital (under Brevan Howard), Galaxy Digital, and Weiss Asset Management. The investment was made by purchasing American Depositary Shares (ADS), each representing 15 Class A ordinary shares of the company, without warrants or derivatives attached. Canaan stated that the funding will strengthen its capital structure, reduce future dilution risks, and be used for high-performance computing and energy infrastructure development.

NASDAQ-listed Bitcoin miner TeraWulf Inc. (ticker: WULF) announced the completion of a $1.025 billion 0.00% convertible senior note (due 2032) issuance. After deducting underwriting and issuance expenses, the company’s net proceeds are about $999.7 million, mainly to be used for the construction of its Abernathy data center campus in Texas and for general corporate purposes.

The National Computer Virus Emergency Response Center released a report stating that in December 2020, the LuBian mining pool was hacked, with about 127,000 Bitcoins stolen (now worth over $15 billion). The report indicated the incident stemmed from a vulnerability in the pseudo-random number generator used for private key creation, which allowed hackers to brute-force and take control. On-chain analysis shows the stolen funds closely match Bitcoin addresses seized by the U.S. Department of Justice in October this year, suggesting they are the same assets.

NYSE-listed Cango Inc. released October Bitcoin mining data, with a monthly output of 602.6 BTC, slightly down from September’s 616.6 BTC, and an average daily production of about 19.44 BTC. As of the end of October, the company held a total of 6,412.6 BTC. Deployed hash rate remained at 50 EH/s, with an average monthly effective hash rate rising to 46.09 EH/s. The company emphasized its commitment to long-term holding and no plans to sell.

Bitcoin miner Cipher Mining (NASDAQ: CIFR) announced that its wholly owned subsidiary Cipher Compute has priced a $1.4 billion 7.125% senior secured note offering at par, maturing in 2030, with settlement expected on November 13. The notes are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by Cipher’s subsidiary Cipher Barber Lake, secured by principal assets, parent company shares, and related accounts. The proceeds will fund the completion of the Barber Lake data center near Colorado City, Texas, with Cipher providing a completion guarantee.

Publicly listed miner IREN announced a five-year GPU cloud computing service agreement with Microsoft worth approximately $9.7 billion, with 20% paid upfront. IREN will partner with Dell to procure about $5.8 billion of NVIDIA GB300 GPUs for deployment at its Childress campus in Texas, with full implementation expected in 2026.

Abu Dhabi-listed Phoenix Group launched a 30 MW Bitcoin mining site in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, adding about 1.9 EH/s of hash power. The project is located in the Bole Lemi Industrial Park and developed in partnership with state utility Ethiopian Electric Power. The company previously secured 52 MW of mining capacity locally and aims to expand to as much as 132 MW. (The Miner Mag)

MARA Holdings achieved a record $123 million net profit in Q3 2025, with revenue up 92% year-on-year to $252 million, mainly driven by Bitcoin price increases, a 64% rise in hash rate, and lower power costs. The company mined 2,144 Bitcoins this quarter and currently holds about 53,250 BTC, valued at about $5.6 billion, ranking second in public Bitcoin reserves. MARA also announced a partnership with Marathon Petroleum’s MPLX to build up to 1.5 GW of gas power generation and data center facilities in West Texas. (The Block)

Bitcoin mining and AI data center company Iren plans to raise $2 billion through two convertible bond issues, each $1 billion maturing in 2032 and 2033, with coupon ranges of 0%–0.25% and 0.5%–1%, and conversion premiums of 25%–30%. Iren is also launching a private equity offering and seeking to repurchase some of its 2029 and 2030 bonds. Previously, Microsoft signed a five-year, $9.7 billion computing power procurement agreement with Iren. (Bloomberg)