The latest Crypto sell-off is not just a price story. This can be seen in balance sheets, ETFs, and even in how infrastructure is used as markets change.
This week’s decline in Ether (ETH) is sending treasury-heavy companies to massive paper losses, while Bitcoin (BTC) ETFs are giving a novel wave of investors their first real taste of downside volatility.
At the same time, extreme weather conditions are reminding miners that hash rates still depend on power grids, and a former cryptocurrency miner turned AI darling shows how yesterday’s mining infrastructure has quietly become today’s AI backbone.
This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter discusses BitMine Immersion Technologies’ mounting losses on paper, BlackRock Bitcoin ETF investor declines underwater, and the impact of the U.S. winter storm on public mining production.
Losses on ETH BitMine paper are deepening
BitMine Immersion Technologies, chaired by Tom Lee, is facing mounting paper losses in its ether-heavy vault as ETH fell below $2,200 during the latest crypto sell-off.
The decline pushed the company’s unrealized losses to more than $7 billion, underscoring the risks associated with balance sheets built around volatile digital assets.
BitMine currently holds approximately $9.1 billion worth of Ether, including its recent purchase of 40,302 ETH, which exposes the company to further price volatility.
While the losses remain unrealized unless the asset is sold, they highlight the fragility of cryptocurrency strategies when markets fall. Lee has pushed away in response to criticism, arguing that unrealized losses are an inherent feature of ETH holding companies. “BitMine is designed to track the price of ETH,” he said, adding that ETH should be expected to weaken during a downturn.
BlackRock Bitcoin ETF holders are slipping underwater
As Bitcoin fell below $80,000, total returns to investors in BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) turned negative, highlighting the depth of the recent sell-off and its impact on investors’ portfolios.
According to Unlimited Funds Chief Investment Officer Bob Elliott, the average dollar invested in IBIT is currently below par. Bitcoin has since extended its decline below $75,000, increasing pressure on returns.
IBIT was one of BlackRock’s most successful ETF launches, becoming the fastest asset manager to reach $70 billion in assets. These investors are now getting a first-hand lesson in Bitcoin’s volatility, especially when the price action is definitely heading down.
Winter storm in the US hits Bitcoin production
The powerful winter storm that hit the United States in behind schedule January forced Bitcoin miners to sharply curtail production, underscoring how sensitive mining is to power grid loads during extreme weather.
New data from CryptoQuant shows that public miners’ daily production averaged around 70-90 BTC before the storm, then dropped to just 30-40 BTC at the peak of the disruption. The decline was acute and reflected widespread outages as miners shed loads or went offline to avoid straining local power grids.
The slowdown turned out to be momentary. As weather conditions improved, production began to recover, highlighting the flexibility that miners remain, but also the variability that comes from grid-dependent operations.
CryptoQuant’s data tracks publicly traded miners including CleanSpark, MARA Holdings, Bitfarms and Iris Energy, offering a snapshot of how huge U.S. mines are responding to energy shortages.
CoreWeave shows how crypto infrastructure has become the backbone of the AI data center
CoreWeave’s evolution from cryptocurrency miner to AI infrastructure provider is a clear example of how mining-era hardware is being repurposed for the AI boom, highlighting how computing resources migrate across different technology cycles.
According to The Miner Mag, Ethereum’s transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake has significantly reduced demand for GPU-based mining, forcing CoreWeave and similar operators to pivot toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing.
While CoreWeave no longer operates as a crypto company, its transition has become a blueprint for other miners looking to diversify, including HIVE Digital, Hut 8 and MARA Holdings.
CoreWeave’s business gained prominence after Nvidia agreed to a $2 billion equity investment in the company, cementing the view that infrastructure built for cryptocurrency mining now forms a critical layer of the AI data center backbone.
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