BTC mining industry finances AI gold rush with $11B convertible bond boom

The Bitcoin mining industry is financing its expensive pivot to AI data centers with convertible debt that sometimes features a 0% coupon.

Bitcoin (BTC) miners have raised $11 billion in convertible debt — corporate debt that is convertible to stocks — over the last year, amid a pivot into artificial intelligence data centers.

Miners completed 18 convertible bond deals following the April 2024 Bitcoin halving that slashed the block reward by 50%, according to TheMinerMag.

The average convertible bond issue more than doubled, with mining companies MARA, Cipher Mining, IREN and TeraWulf each raising $1 billion through single bond issues. Some offerings have featured coupons as low as 0%, signaling investors’ willingness to waive interest payments in exchange for potential equity upside.

Read more