The co-founder of Fundstrat has revealed the results of a ranking of 17 large-cap crypto stocks based on how closely they track the price of Bitcoin, with mining companies landing at the bottom of the table due to their extremely low correlation figures. The phenomenon underscores a major structural shift as miners pivot to generating revenue from AI infrastructure instead, forcing investors who had hoped to gain exposure to digital assets through these stocks to reconsider their strategies ahead of the next earnings season.
Tom Lee, co-founder of Fundstrat, analyzed the 90-day correlation of crypto stocks with a market capitalization exceeding $2 billion against BlackRock's crypto fund. The results painted a paradoxical picture of the capital markets: while MicroStrategy — a company whose sole business is holding Bitcoin — tracked the price of the cryptocurrency as closely as 78%, the mining companies that would seem most directly linked to it were moving in the opposite direction.
The statistics show that Core Scientific stock had a correlation with Bitcoin of just 16%, lower even than an unrelated business like Trump Media, which maintained a correlation of 40%. Similarly, Cipher Mining and TeraWulf captured only 17% and 18% of Bitcoin's directional moves, respectively. This consistently declining trend makes it clear that the business structures of these companies no longer rely on revenue from blockchain network processing as their core engine.
The pivotal turning point came from rising mining cost pressures, combined with two key strategic advantages these miners possess: cheap electricity purchase contracts and data centers designed to handle extremely heavy power loads. Companies therefore chose to restructure their models by leasing space and power capacity to artificial intelligence developers. This new structure delivers fixed monthly returns, which is more sustainable than pinning hopes on the wildly volatile price of cryptocurrency.
The clearest reflection of this shift appears in the most recent quarterly financial statements. Core Scientific swept in total revenue of $164.2 million for the quarter ending in June, with more than 83% — or approximately $136.7 million — flowing from its data center business, while Bitcoin mining contributed only 13%. In contrast, IREN, which still has an AI cloud revenue share of around 23%, sees its stock maintain a closer alignment with the crypto market at 33%.
This was not a coincidence but a survival imperative. Core Scientific previously faced bankruptcy in December 2022 as a result of the crypto market collapse, before successfully completing its restructuring in January 2024. That near-death experience pushed Bitcoin mining companies to accelerate their diversification efforts, transforming them into an industry that is now barely affected by the downturns of the digital asset cycle.
The key issue that Thai and ASEAN-region investors must watch closely is the revaluation of these stocks. Buying mining stocks in hopes of benefiting from a Bitcoin bull run may have become a misaligned investment. These stocks now effectively function as landlords of high-grade energy and computing infrastructure. What must be monitored closely in the next earnings season is the share of revenue derived from AI — if that figure continues to climb, the price of mining stocks will become ever more completely decoupled from the cryptocurrency market.
