June proved to be a challenging month for three leading public mining companies: CleanSpark, BitFuFu, and Canaan recorded a decline in Bitcoin mining volumes. This comes amid a sharp drop in network difficulty to its lowest levels in two years, which should have eased miners' operations but did not save them from operational issues.
CleanSpark, one of the largest players, mined 614 BTC compared to 671 BTC in May. The company attributes this to a decrease in average operational hashrate from 46 EH/s to 43 EH/s. Despite this, the company's balance remains impressive at 13,924 BTC. BitFuFu showed an even more significant decline: from 177 BTC to 125 BTC. The reason is a reduction in leased capacity: the company's total hashrate fell from 19.5 EH/s to 15 EH/s. However, BitFuFu is actively expanding its own fleet, deploying 1,200 S21 XP miners in June and planning to connect another 2,000 in July. Canaan mined 64 BTC compared to 90 BTC the previous month, citing electrical grid maintenance at one of its sites. However, their joint venture in Texas has already recovered from the May wildfires, and the company added 49 BTC to its balance, ending the month with record holdings of 1,915 BTC and 3,952 ETH.
Market reaction was mixed: CleanSpark shares rose 5% to $13, BitFuFu gained 7% to $1.42, while Canaan's stock lost 1.5%, falling to $0.2.
CleanSpark Bets on Diversification
On July 14, CleanSpark signed a 20-year lease agreement for a data center campus in Sandersville, Georgia, with an unnamed technology company. The contract is valued at $6.6 billion, and with renewal options, up to $11.6 billion. The tenant will deploy 175 MW of infrastructure, with commissioning scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2027.
CleanSpark CEO Matt Schultz called this agreement a milestone: the company is transitioning from exclusively Bitcoin mining to a diversified digital infrastructure model, beginning to commercialize its energy assets. Concurrently, the parties signed an agreement for exclusive negotiations on CleanSpark's entire Texas portfolio, which includes two sites totaling 718 acres with 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.
Recall that MARA Holdings is also actively investing in infrastructure for AI and Bitcoin mining, having acquired a site in Texas for $600 million.
My analysis: The decline in production at CleanSpark, BitFuFu, and Canaan is not a coincidence but a reflection of structural changes in the industry. Miners are shifting from the hashrate race to managing energy assets, especially in the context of the AI boom. By signing multi-billion dollar contracts, CleanSpark is essentially becoming a data center operator rather than just a miner. This is a sensible move that diversifies risks and opens new revenue streams. However, investors should closely monitor how companies balance traditional mining with new directions.