Fred Thiel, CEO of Marathon Digital, one of the world’s largest Bitcoin (BTC) mining companies, made critical comments on his broadcast about the future of the industry, the energy war between Bitcoin and artificial intelligence (AI), and major changes in the mining world.
Fred Thiel, one of the leading figures in the Bitcoin mining and data center infrastructure industry, has painted an impressive picture of the future of Bitcoin. The next big move in the market will not only be driven by price, but also by energy and computing power, Thiel said.
Thiel noted that access to energy is becoming increasingly difficult, especially in the United States. The CEO added that massive demand from the AI sector is transforming the energy market, and said large data center operators known as “hyperscalers” are vying for land already on the grid. “Time is becoming more important than cost. Companies can’t wait until 2029 to run GPUs. They need energy now,” Thiel said, emphasizing the increasing value of having access to energy capacity.
Thiel also touched on the cost of Bitcoin mining equipment, explaining that hardware prices are at historic lows. He said costs peaked at $80 to $100 per TeraHash in 2021, but have now come down to $8 to $9 due to innovation and oversupply. He added that while this is a great opportunity for companies looking to add new production capacity, it will squeeze profit margins for miners with high energy costs.
In response to an investor’s question, “Will the security of the Bitcoin network be at risk if miners switch to AI?”, Thiel said that the Bitcoin blockchain network is currently more than secure and that changing the hash rate poses no risk to the network.
*This is not investment advice.