Publicly traded Bitcoin mining firm Cango has sold 2,000 BTC to retire debt and fund a diversification strategy into AI and energy infrastructure. The company, which raised $75 million, now holds 1,025.69 BTC and has reduced its production cost per Bitcoin by 19%. This move is part of a broader industry trend where major miners like Marathon Digital and Core Scientific are pivoting to AI, contributing to a significant 17.4% drop in Bitcoin’s global hashrate, according to on-chain data.
Cango (NYSE: CANG), a publicly traded Bitcoin mining firm, sold 2,000 BTC in March to retire its BTC-backed loans in what it called a “strategic de-leveraging.” The firm stated that proceeds from this sale and a $75 million capital raise will support its planned transition into energy and AI infrastructure.
The company now holds 1,025.69 BTC after the sale. Cango’s aggressive operations reportedly reduced its Bitcoin production cost by 19% in the first quarter, from $84,500 per BTC to $68,200.
This leaves the miner vulnerable if Bitcoin’s price falls below its production cost, potentially forcing further liquidations. The growing pivot to AI infrastructure by public miners, including Marathon Digital, Bit Digital, and Core Scientific, is a strategy to maximize compute power for additional revenue.
This shift has coincided with a drop in Bitcoin’s global hashrate. Data from Glassnode shows the hashrate declined from a record 1.115 Zetahash/s to 950 Exahash/s, a 17.4% fall.
The decreasing hashrate lowers the overall Bitcoin network security and could expose the network if the trend continues. However, it also presents an opportunity for smaller miners to fill the void as network difficulty and production costs fall for the remaining participants.
