WGMI Valkyrie ETF Trust II CoinShares Bitcoin Mining ETF : Bullish and Bearish Analyst Opinions

Go Mining has onboarded "almost 5 million people" to mining via NFT-based hashrate, allowing entry for as little as $25. By abstracting the hardware and electricity complexities, Go Mining is increasing the capital inflows into the mining sector. This "retail-ization" of industrial mining stabilizes hashrate growth and broadens the investor base for the mining ecosystem. LONG. Democratized access to hashrate creates a more robust mining network and sustained demand for mining infrastructure. Bitcoin halving events reducing rewards; centralization of hashrate in large pools.

Analysts at Rosenblat state many miners are running at a loss due to record low hash prices and a 20% drop in Bitcoin's value YTD. They argue miners must transition to High Performance Computing (HPC). The traditional mining business model is currently broken for many operators. The only viable "Long" thesis in this sector is identifying miners successfully pivoting infrastructure to AI/HPC, while pure-play miners face insolvency risks. WATCH (Look for HPC pivots) / AVOID (Pure-play miners). High capital expenditure required to pivot to HPC; execution risk.

"The average all in cost of mining Bitcoin is around $80,000. We're well below that right now... We've seen BitDeer Technologies sell all of its Bitcoin holdings." When the spot price is below the cost of production ($65k price vs $80k cost), miners burn cash reserves. This forces "less well capitalized miners" to sell treasury assets (capitulation) and eventually leads to industry consolidation where cash-rich miners acquire distressed competitors. Expect high volatility and bankruptcies in the sector. Avoid miners with weak balance sheets; watch for M&A opportunities among the "cash rich" leaders. Prolonged period of price below production cost could threaten even well-capitalized players.

"Other Bitcoin miners have strategically repositioned some of their data centers and assets to support the growth in AI, and so they're a little bit more insulated from the drawdown in Bitcoin price." Miners that diversify into High-Performance Computing (HPC) and AI data centers decouple their revenue from the volatile price of Bitcoin and the halving economics. These hybrid miners offer a defensive play within the crypto ecosystem. Prefer miners pivoting to AI infrastructure over pure-play miners during price drawdowns. Execution risk in pivoting business models from SHA-256 mining to AI compute hosting.

"Those miners that have really survived 2025 and that will thrive in 2026 are those that are highly efficient, have you know low capital cost basis... those that are running, you know, high amounts of leverage... they won't survive." The sector is undergoing a "survival of the fittest" phase due to the 2024 halving and rising difficulty. This is no longer a rising tide that lifts all boats; capital must flow specifically to miners with the lowest cost of production and clean balance sheets, while leveraged operators face bankruptcy. WATCH / SELECTIVE LONG on high-efficiency miners; AVOID high-leverage miners. Continued increase in network difficulty or energy prices could squeeze margins even for efficient operators.

Todd explicitly states, "We took the initiative of Bitcoin because we're big Bitcoin miners... We took the proof of work concept and said, 'Hey, we're just going to reward you for running a software node.'" He also details the inability to move $200M in Bitcoin liquidity due to banking freezes. The fragility of the fiat banking layer (debanking compliant firms) reinforces the value proposition of permissionless settlement layers (Bitcoin) and the miners that secure them. As banking rails become more restrictive, the premium on "uncensorable infrastructure" increases. LONG. Bitcoin remains the primary hedge against the specific banking failures described. Regulatory crackdowns on mining energy usage or "unhosted" wallets.

"A lower price would cause more miners to be unprofitable and leave Bitcoin mining and maybe repurchase their machines to do something else with AI data centers." Bitcoin price is a leading indicator for miner health. If BTC drops to $40,000 (as predicted), mining profitability will collapse. This forces a shakeout where only those capable of pivoting to AI/HPC (High-Performance Computing) survive. Until the price bottoms, pure-play miners face severe margin compression. AVOID (until BTC price stabilizes or AI pivots are confirmed). Miners successfully hedging their production or a sudden spike in transaction fees offsetting the price drop.

Miners are the primary source of marginal selling pressure right now as they sell coins to keep lights on. With Bitcoin near their production cost ($60k), miners are in survival mode. They are immediately selling mined Bitcoin to service debt. Some are pivoting to "High Performance Computing" (AI) to survive. Production cost cited at $60k. If BTC drops below $60k, widespread bankruptcies and industry consolidation will occur.

"Capital is pivoting to the new hot thing which is AI... Bitcoin miners are moving to AI... there's more money to be made in AI." Pure-play crypto mining is suffering from the "bear market" and "opportunity cost." Miners that successfully transition their HPC (High-Performance Computing) centers to service AI demand are unlocking a superior, more stable revenue stream. Long the miners that are explicitly pivoting infrastructure to AI compute rather than just hashing Bitcoin. Execution risk on the pivot; AI bubble bursting.