June 2026 was a challenging month for several major public mining companies. CleanSpark, BitFuFu, and Canaan simultaneously reported a decline in the volume of the first cryptocurrency mined. This is notable against the backdrop of mining difficulty falling to 2026 lows, which seemingly should have made miners' work easier. However, as the data shows, internal operational issues and strategic shifts outweighed this favorable macro factor.
CleanSpark mined 614 BTC compared to 671 BTC in May. The main reason was a decrease in the average operational hashrate from 46 EH/s to 43 EH/s. The company held 13,924 BTC on its balance sheet at the end of the month. BitFuFu showed a sharper drop: 125 BTC versus 177 BTC the previous month. Total computing power fell from 19.5 EH/s to 15 EH/s due to a reduction in leased capacity. Meanwhile, the company is expanding its own fleet, having deployed 1,200 S21 XP miners. Canaan mined only 64 BTC (compared to 90 BTC in May), citing planned power grid maintenance at one of its sites. However, their Texas joint venture recovered after the May wildfires.
The stock market reaction was mixed. CleanSpark shares rose 5% (to $13), BitFuFu gained 7% (to $1.42), while Canaan lost 1.5% (to $0.2). This suggests that investors have different assessments of these players' long-term prospects.
CleanSpark Bets on AI Infrastructure
The most significant event of the month was CleanSpark signing a 20-year lease contract for a data center campus in Georgia with an unnamed technology company. The deal is valued at $6.6 billion, and with extension options, it could reach $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 transition from pure Bitcoin mining to a diversified digital infrastructure model. The company had already begun pivoting toward AI in the fall of 2025. Additionally, CleanSpark is in exclusive negotiations across its entire Texas portfolio (two sites with potential capacity up to 885 MW). The contract is expected to generate approximately $330 million in net operating income annually.
Expert Commentary: The decline in mining output for these companies is not just a coincidence but a reflection of a fundamental shift in the industry. We are seeing major players move from simply increasing hashrate to monetizing their energy assets through AI and cloud services. For companies like CleanSpark, Bitcoin mining is becoming not the sole focus, but just one line of business. This could lead to long-term stabilization of their revenues, but in the short term, the decline in BTC mining may pressure stock prices.