June proved to be a challenging month for leading public mining companies. CleanSpark, BitFuFu, and Canaan simultaneously reported a decline in Bitcoin mining volumes, despite a notable drop in network difficulty, which hit lows not seen since 2026. This suggests that factors of operational efficiency and capacity management outweigh short-term fluctuations in network parameters.
CleanSpark reduced production from 671 BTC in May to 614 BTC in June. The main reason was a decrease in average operational hashrate — from 46 EH/s to 43 EH/s. The company's balance sheet at the end of the month held 13,924 BTC. BitFuFu showed an even sharper decline: from 177 BTC to 125 BTC. The total computing power of equipment dropped from 19.5 EH/s to 15 EH/s due to a reduction in leased capacity. Meanwhile, the company continues to expand its own fleet: 1,200 S21 XP miners were deployed in June, and another 2,000 devices are expected to come online in July. Canaan mined 64 BTC compared to 90 BTC the previous month, attributing the decline to planned power grid maintenance at one of its sites. However, the company's Texas joint venture recovered from May disruptions caused by wildfires. As a result, Canaan added 49 BTC to its balance sheet, ending June with a record 1,915 BTC and 3,952 ETH.
The market reacted to the reports in mixed directions. CleanSpark shares rose 5% (to $13), BitFuFu gained 7% (to $1.42), while Canaan lost 1.5% (to $0.2). This dynamic reflects differences in how investors perceive the companies' strategies: CleanSpark and BitFuFu are actively diversifying, while Canaan remains more vulnerable to operational disruptions.
CleanSpark Signs $6.6 Billion Contract
On July 14, CleanSpark entered into a 20-year lease agreement for a data center campus in Sandersville, Georgia, with an unnamed investment-grade technology company. The contract is valued at $6.6 billion. The lessee will deploy infrastructure with a capacity of 175 MW, with commissioning scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2027. The agreement includes two options for five-year extensions each, which, if exercised, could bring the total deal value to $11.6 billion.
CleanSpark CEO Matt Schultz emphasized that the contract marks the company's transition from Bitcoin mining to a diversified digital infrastructure model. Simultaneously, the parties signed an agreement for exclusive negotiations covering CleanSpark's entire Texas portfolio, which includes two sites totaling 718 acres with a potential capacity of up to 885 MW. The company expects the contract to generate approximately $330 million in net operating income annually, with nearly 100% operating margins.
This move is a logical continuation of the strategy CleanSpark began in the fall of 2025, pivoting toward infrastructure for artificial intelligence. Notably, mining company MARA Holdings also acquired a site in Texas, planning to invest up to $600 million in projects for AI and Bitcoin mining.
My comment: The decline in production among three major players is not a coincidence but a signal of structural changes in the industry. Miners are increasingly moving from simply increasing hashrate to managing energy assets and diversifying toward AI infrastructure. CleanSpark's $6.6 billion contract shows that the future of large mining companies lies not in Bitcoin, but in energy commercialization. Investors should closely watch which players can effectively transform their business models.