Bitcoin miners that are still drawing electricity from grid-attached power sources will struggle after the next halving event in 2028, MARA Holdings (MARA) said in a shareholder letter. "For those miners still relying on grid-attached power, the writing is on the wall. Energy costs will only rise. The 2028 halving will likely force another industry-wide reckoning. Many may not survive," the letter said. See all newslettersThe statement comes as the mining industry has already been struggling to stay profitable following a recent halving event that saw bitcoin rewards cut in half, forcing some miners to diversify their revenue sources into high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI). AI Is Here, but That Doesn’t Mean Bitcoin Miners Are Finished: BlockspaceMARA, one of the largest bitcoin miners, said that in such a competitive market, miners would need to differentiate themselves or would risk falling behind and struggling to stay profitable. "Those that fail to differentiate will be relegated to being price takers in an increasingly competitive market." The miner's solution, which it claims to have already taken an "early lead," is to secure low-cost energy, vertically integrate their operations and expand beyond the traditional bitcoin mining business- alluding to the fact that miners need to cater to other computing needs such as AI and HPC. "Our ability to acquire sites and generate low cost energy, activate depreciated hardware and energy assets, and run a vertically integrated model – from software and hardware, and now, to energy generation – will provide us greater control over costs." To this end, MARA most recently bought a Texas wind farm that would lower the miner's power costs. MARA said it has also ramped up development and sales of data center infrastructure, which will become the base layer of infrastructure for any computing needs. "Whether for bitcoin mining or AI inference, we believe our technologies will activate others to build while MARA provides the picks and shovels to deploy new systems and services, such as energy management, load balancing, and infrastructure," MARA said. The miner also reported its fourth-quarter earnings, where its sales of $214.4 million beat the average analyst estimate of $187.8 million, according to FactSet data. MARA stock rose more than 8% in the post-market trading, while bitcoin was down 4.2% on Wednesday. Bitcoin Hashrate Growth Slows Amid Tough Market Conditions for Smaller Miners

“We’re on the precipice of finally creating a bipartisan legislative framework for both stablecoins and market structure,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo. on Wednesday.So far this year in the new Congress, the focus has been on first regulating stablecoins, with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers coming out with bills over the past several weeks. 

The current total market value of cryptocurrencies is 2.88 trillion US dollars, with a 24-hour evaporation of 105.148 billion US dollars, a decline of 3.52%. Among them, the market value of Bitcoin accounts for 58.51%, and the market value of Ethereum accounts for 10.1%.

The latest candlestick chart shows that BTC prices have gained support around $83900 after experiencing a sharp decline and are showing signs of stabilization. It is worth noting that there have been multiple large buying orders emerging in the region, indicating that the main funds have begun to actively intervene and intend to support the market. From the 90 minute structure, the price hit the bottom this morning and rebounded strongly, with stable support below. As long as it can hold steady at $84000, it is expected to start a new round of rebound. Tip: If you want to gain real-time insights into the main trends and seize market opportunities, join the membership now to unlock the tracking of major orders! The data is sourced from the PRO member's [BTC/USDT Binance 90 minute] candlestick, for reference only, and does not constitute any investment advice.

The OKX BTC/USD perpetual funding rate is currently 0.03%, and long positions need to pay funding fees to short positions, indicating a high sentiment in the market. AiCoin [PC - Home - Popular Rankings] has launched the "Fund Rate" ranking, which provides a list of rate arbitrage opportunities. Capital fees are an important mechanism for anchoring spot prices in perpetual contracts, used to balance long and short sentiment. When the funding rate is greater than 0, long positions pay funding fees to short positions; When the funding rate is less than 0, short sellers pay funding fees to long sellers.