Bitcoin mining stocks opened sharply lower Tuesday to begin the trading week as bitcoin’s price retreated toward a critical support level. Major operators including MARA (NASDAQ: MARA) and Riot (NASDAQ: RIOT) erased recent gains and tracked a broader decline in cryptocurrency markets.
Bitcoin traded at $90,489 on the stock market open, a loss of 2.28% over 24-hours. Bitcoin hovered just above the $90,000 mark and exerted downward pressure on bitcoin mining stock valuations across the board.
MARA led the losses among the largest miners by market capitalization. Shares fell 6.87% to $10.58 in early trading, while Riot was close behind, falling 5.09% to $18.26 amid the sector-wide pullback.
IREN (NASDAQ: IREN) dropped 4.88% to $55.00 at the open. CleanSpark (NASDAQ: CLSK) shares decreased 4.79% to $12.73. Applied Digital (NASDAQ: APLD) faced significant selling pressure and fell 6.36% to $35.02.
Other industry players recorded similar deficits. Cipher (NASDAQ: CIFR) opened down 4.79% at $17.90, and Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) slipped 4.16% to $18.11. TeraWulf (NASDAQ: WULF) lost 3.10% to trade at $13.42, and Hut 8 (NASDAQ: HUT) shares declined 5.22% to $56.54.
Bitfarms (NASDAQ: BITF) fell 5.58% to approximately $2.80, and HIVE (NASDAQ: HIVE) shares dropped 4.54% to roughly $3.33.
Bitcoin miners have increasingly sought to decouple their stock performance from bitcoin prices by pivoting toward high-performance computing (HPC) and AI. Last year, Cipher, TeraWulf, IREN, Galaxy, and Hut 8 all signed major deals with hyperscalers or other AI tech companies.
Most recently, Riot inked its first HPC/AI deal on January 16. The company acquired its Rockdale site to secure land for the initiative and disclosed a $311 million lease agreement with AMD, with contract extensions valued at roughly $1 billion.
Analysts noted similar infrastructure advantages for CleanSpark on January 14. J.P. Morgan highlighted the value of the company’s power assets due to their proximity to major metropolitan areas. Management identified these sites as suitable for AI and inference applications that require low latency.
HIVE also outlined plans to diversify its revenue base and expand its power capacity on January 13. The company announced a 100-megawatt expansion of its operations in Paraguay scheduled for completion in 2026.
