Bitcoin Miners' AI Pivot Decouples Crypto ETF from Bitcoin

The Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (NASDAQ:WGMI) has seen a significant increase of 97% over the past year, despite bitcoin losing 46% of its value in the same period. This divergence is attributed to WGMI holding bitcoin miners that have quietly stopped being bitcoin miners due to AI leasing deals.

Key details show that Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT), Core Scientific (NASDAQ:CORZ), and IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) have signed multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure leases, decoupling WGMI from the coin it was designed around. These deals have driven the shares of these companies upwards despite the decline in bitcoin's value.

Reactions from the sources indicate that investors wanting direct bitcoin exposure should use iShares Bitcoin Trust (NASDAQ:IBIT) instead of WGMI, which now behaves as an AI infrastructure landlord rather than a crypto proxy. The fund's bull case rests on 15-year AI leases and hyperscaler capex from NVIDIA and Microsoft.

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What happens next is grounded in the sources, as the pace at which AMD, NVIDIA, Microsoft, and frontier labs keep writing multi-billion-dollar power-and-compute checks determines the terminal value of every top holding in WGMI. Delays in ERCOT Pecos load-study results could push back AMD delivery dates.

Wider implications for markets and trade suggest that a slowdown in AI capex guidance hits these stocks first, because the bull case is now written in 15-year leases rather than hash rates. Holders who wanted direct bitcoin exposure and ended up in WGMI may find themselves in the wrong vehicle if either the macro signal or the fund signal shifts against the AI-pivoted miners.