Shares of crypto mining companies IREN and CleanSpark plunged Thursday after quarterly results missed Wall Street expectations and a sharp drop in Bitcoin triggered risk-off trading.
Bitcoin fell about 12% over 24 hours, briefly touching $60,000 early Friday, while total crypto market capitalization declined roughly 9%, according to CoinMarketCap. The rout weighed on miner stocks across the board.
CleanSpark (CLSK) led losses, closing down 19.13% Thursday and sliding a further 8.6% in after-hours trading to $7.55 after reporting quarter-ended Dec. 31 revenue of $181.20 million—about 2.9% below analysts’ $186.66 million estimate. The company recorded a net loss of $378.7 million versus a net profit of $246.8 million in the year-ago quarter. Analysts noted that reduced mining rewards after the April 2024 Bitcoin halving likely lowered mining efficiency and constrained profit in the period.
CleanSpark’s CFO and president, Gary Vecchiarelli, said the company is diversifying beyond pure mining, positioning AI infrastructure to monetize assets long term while mining provides cash flow and digital asset management optimizes capital.
IREN Ltd., which has shifted core operations from Bitcoin mining to AI infrastructure, also missed revenue forecasts. IREN reported $184.69 million for the final quarter of 2025—about 16.5% below expectations—and posted a net loss of $155.4 million, compared with net income of $384.6 million a year earlier. Its shares fell 11.46% in regular trading and dropped another 18.5% after hours to $32.42.
Other major mining stocks fell sharply: RIOT Platforms (RIOT) dropped about 14.7% and MARA Holding (MARA) fell roughly 18.7%, according to Google Finance. Bitcoin’s price has slid about 29% over the past 30 days, and market sentiment has plunged: the Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell to 9 out of 100, its lowest reading since the Terra collapse in mid-2022.
The earnings misses and the broader crypto sell-off highlight mounting pressure on miner profitability and the sector’s ongoing shift toward diversification, including AI infrastructure plays.
