Shares of crypto mining companies plunged Thursday after quarterly results missed expectations and a sharp drop in Bitcoin sparked risk-off trading.
Bitcoin fell roughly 12% over 24 hours, briefly touching $60,000 early Friday, while total crypto market capitalization declined about 9%, according to CoinMarketCap. The rout put pressure on miner stocks across the board.
CleanSpark led the losses, closing down 19.13% on Thursday and sliding another 8.6% in after-hours trading to $7.55. The company reported quarter-ended Dec. 31 revenue of $181.20 million, about 2.9% below the $186.66 million analysts had forecast. CleanSpark recorded a net loss of $378.7 million versus a net profit of $246.8 million a year earlier. Analysts said reduced mining rewards after the April 2024 Bitcoin halving likely weighed on mining efficiency and constrained profitability in the quarter.
CleanSpark CFO and president Gary Vecchiarelli said the company is diversifying beyond pure mining, positioning AI infrastructure to monetize assets over the long term while continuing to use mining for cash flow and digital asset management to optimize capital.
IREN Ltd., which has also been shifting core operations from Bitcoin mining toward AI infrastructure, missed revenue forecasts as well. 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 a further 18.5% after hours to $32.42.
Other major miners were hit hard: RIOT Platforms declined about 14.7% and MARA Holding fell roughly 18.7%, according to Google Finance. Bitcoin’s price has slid about 29% over the past 30 days, and sentiment has deteriorated sharply: the Crypto Fear & Greed Index fell to 9 out of 100, its lowest reading since the Terra collapse in mid-2022.
The earnings misses, coupled with the broader crypto sell-off, underscore growing pressure on miner profitability and accelerate the sector’s shift toward diversification, including moves into AI infrastructure and other non-mining revenue streams.