CoinDesk Podcast Network THE MINING POD: MARA’s CTO Shakeup, BlackRock’s $40B AI Deal, Bitdeer’s $2B AI Plans, Ionic Digital’s Microsoft Deal
Oct 17, 2025
Nick Hansen, CEO of Luxor, shares insights on recent shifts in the bitcoin mining landscape. He discusses MARA's unexpected CTO departure and its potential impact. The conversation dives into Bitdeer’s impressive 20.5% BTC production growth and its ambitious $2 billion AI revenue target by 2026. Hansen also analyzes BlackRock's hefty $40 billion data center acquisition, sparking a debate on the future of AI infrastructure. Lastly, the U.S. government's seizure of over $14 billion in bitcoin from a scam operation raises intriguing questions about restitution.
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Hashprice Pressure From Price And Difficulty
- Hashprice fell under $50/PH/day and is mainly driven by BTC price and difficulty changes.
- Low on-chain fees remove any short-term relief for miners from transactions.
Optimize To Weather Compressed Margins
- Optimize operations to survive compressed margins by improving efficiency and using economic dispatch signals.
- Use tactics like tuning machines and avoiding expensive power during high 4CP intervals.
Marathon CTO Departure Raises Product Questions
- Marathon quietly removed CTO Ashu Swamy from its management page, raising questions about product lines.
- The fate of Marathon's 2PIC immersion cooling and GPU/AI strategy remains unclear.