HashrateUp - A Bitcoin Mining Podcast

🛠 Sponsored by:

Altair Technology — ASIC hardware, replacement parts & mining infrastructure
Code: HASHRATEUP
https://altairtech.io/aff/125/

Luxor — Mining software, firmware & hashrate tools
https://luxor.tech/

Hash price bounced from the high 20s back to ~$32, Bitcoin difficulty is down year-over-year for only the second time ever, and the great AI pivot may be running into its first real wall.

In this news roundup, I break down whether the AI trade is finally cracking — and whether capital is starting to rotate from AI equities back into Bitcoin. We cover the Stratum V2 milestone (Demand pool + Go Mining), the wave of miners fleeing to AI (TeraWolf's $19B Anthropic deal, Core Scientific's $14B AMD deal, MARA, Hive, CleanSpark), reverse stock splits to dodge delisting, BitDeer's US factory, and the first real grid pushback — New York's moratorium and Texas pausing its data center queue.

The big question: if China chip progress and open-weight models like Kimi V3 undercut AI economics, what happens to the capital funding these 15–20 year leases?

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro & hash price update ($32.74, difficulty +0.47%)
1:15 Bitcoin difficulty down YoY — 2nd time ever
2:30 Demand pool mines first Stratum V2 block
4:00 Sphere3D × BitDeer — 30MW co-mining deal
6:00 Miners defend listings: Cango, American Bitcoin, Canaan
7:30 Sponsor: Altair
8:10 Hive's Swedish AI lease + $600M note
9:20 TeraWolf's $19B, 20-year Anthropic deal
10:50 MARA's $600K/MW Matagorda land grab + Ohio gas plant
12:40 Helios first AI revenue — 133MW to CoreWeave
14:00 BitDeer breaks ground on Nevada factory (SEALMINER A4)
15:20 BitFuFu June report — production down 29.4%
16:40 CleanSpark's AI lease + Foundry BIP110 vote
17:20 Sponsor: Luxor
18:30 Grid pushback: NY moratorium, Braiins + Enel energy tool
20:00 Core Scientific exits Proto ($42M) — lands $14B AMD deal
22:00 The AI trade cracked: Nvidia/OpenAI financing, Kimi V3
24:00 BTC outflows, Russia/BitRiver fraud case
25:20 Cambridge report: power use +38%, 59.4% low-carbon
26:40 Texas pauses data center queue — how worried should AI be?

📊 HashrateUp Hardware Deals: https://t.me/hashrateup
📩 Free 5-Day Bitcoin Mining Course: https://hashrateup.com/newsletter-sign-up/

#BitcoinMining #AIPivot #DataCenter #HashPrice #StratumV2 #CoreWeave #Anthropic #GridPushback #BitcoinNews #HashrateUp

🔗 GUEST LINKS:

Max Hillebrand — Sound Money Solutions: https://soundmoneysolutions.io/

Max on Nostr: https://njump.me/npub1klkk3vrzme455yh9rl2jshq7rc8dpegj3ndf82c3ks2sk40dxt7qulx3vt

Personal site / archive: https://towardsliberty.com/

Mention HashrateUp when you reach out to Sound Money Solutions.

🛠 Sponsored by:

Luxor, Mining software, firmware & hashrate tools
https://luxor.tech/

Altair Technology, ASIC hardware, replacement parts & mining infrastructure
Code: HASHRATEUP
https://altairtech.io/aff/125/

You spend all your time and money maximizing mining profits, but what happens to those coins on the backend?

In this episode, I sit down with Max Hillebrand, co-founder of Sound Money Solutions, to talk about Bitcoin self-custody and how to actually keep the coins you mine safe. The timing couldn't be sharper, with the recent Cold Card entropy and brute-forcing issues making the rounds, but the deeper point is bigger than any single wallet.

We get into why most people never upgrade past their first setup, why no hardware wallet from 2017 is still secure, how holistic security ties your physical and digital life together, threat modeling, single-sig vs. multisig, inheritance planning, and why running your own full node is the real privacy minimum.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro & the Cold Card self-custody issue
2:09 The most common self-custody mistake
3:49 Why we stick with what we know (Ledger, Binance)
6:39 What Sound Money Solutions actually offers
9:42 Self-sovereignty & why custody feels daunting
13:12 Sponsor: Luxor
13:41 Holistic security: your physical life protects your Bitcoin
14:46 Threat modeling: what are you protecting, and from whom?
15:27 GrapheneOS, VPNs & password managers
17:10 Full nodes, hardware wallets & the Cold Card Q
18:12 Inheritance: making your setup work without you
21:35 The North Korean hacks, SIM swaps & Telegram attacks
23:13 Security vs. convenience: striking the balance
25:16 Why your family is a target too
27:53 Sponsor: Altair
28:26 Max's background & what qualifies him
32:05 First steps: the lowest-hanging fruit to fix
34:32 The minimal basic setup (single-sig + passphrase)
35:12 Is custody always bad? Max's nuanced take
40:09 How to get comfortable sending Bitcoin
41:47 Testing your backups before funding a wallet
44:19 Rapid fire: mistakes, wallets, multisig & privacy
47:32 Wrap-up & where to find Max

📊 HashrateUp Hardware Deals: https://t.me/hashrateup
📩 Free 5-Day Bitcoin Mining Course: https://hashrateup.com/newsletter-sign-up/

#Bitcoin #SelfCustody #BitcoinSecurity #ColdCard #HardwareWallet #BitcoinPrivacy #Multisig #GrapheneOS #Cypherpunk #HashrateUp

Bitcoin mining can be more than a 24/7 race for cheap power.

In this episode, I sit down with Bipin Patel, CEO of Flexionics, to talk about how their team uses Bitcoin mining infrastructure as a flexible energy asset in Sweden. The interesting part is the framing: Flexionics does not primarily think of itself as a Bitcoin miner, but as an energy company, and even more specifically, as an energy security company.

We get into frequency regulation, why older ASICs can make sense when uptime is intentionally low, how the economics compare with batteries, and why flexible load may become more important as renewable generation and AI data centers put more pressure on grids.

🔗 GUEST LINKS:
Bipin Patel on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bipincpatel/

🛠 Sponsored by:
Luxor, Mining software, firmware & hashrate tools
https://luxor.tech/

Altair Technology, ASIC hardware, replacement parts & mining infrastructure
Code: HASHRATEUP
https://altairtech.io/aff/125/

Timestamps:
0:00 Intro
0:44 Flexionics as an energy company, not just a miner
2:44 Turning mining sites into frequency regulation assets
4:44 Sweden, regulation, and the perception problem around Bitcoin mining
6:44 Energy-first operations versus 24/7 mining
8:44 Why older ASICs can work in a flexible-load model
9:45 Sponsor: Altair
10:15 Explaining the model to investors
14:13 Why miners and energy investors both struggle with the story
16:43 Grid instability, renewables, and the Iberia blackout discussion
19:13 Bitcoin mining as energy security infrastructure
21:43 Flexible demand as the missing customer for stranded and curtailed power
24:10 Bitcoin's global market as a unique buyer of last resort
26:41 Sponsor: Luxor
27:12 Flexionics economics: capacity revenue plus hash revenue
29:39 Revenue per MW and comparison with batteries
32:59 Hashprice, AI demand, and upside scenarios
37:09 What happens if hashprice goes much higher
39:39 Flexionics sites, 30 MW expansion, and heat reuse
41:09 Wrap-up

📊 HashrateUp Hardware Deals: https://t.me/hashrateup
📩 Free 5-Day Bitcoin Mining Course: https://hashrateup.com/newsletter-sign-up/

🔗 GUEST LINKS
- Raphael Zagury (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/rzagury/
- Elektron Energy: https://elektronenergy.io/
- Twitter/X: @alphazeta ("Here Be Dragons" & monthly mining reports)

🛠 SPONSORED BY
- Luxor – Mining software, firmware & hashrate tools
https://luxor.tech/
- Altair Technology – ASIC hardware, replacement parts & mining infrastructure
Code: HASHRATEUP
https://altairtech.io/aff/125/

📄 OVERVIEW
Everyone's leaving Bitcoin mining for AI. Raphael Zagury — co-founder & CEO of Elektron Energy, one of the largest private Bitcoin miners in the world — explains why they're doing the exact opposite.

We break down the first-ever hash rate bear market: why this cycle feels different, why hash rate has been grinding down since October (not crashing like the China ban), and what happens when 60-70% of machines get wiped out at the next hashprice halving. Raphael makes the contrarian case that right now is one of the best times ever to start mining — if you can survive on the left side of the cost curve.

We also get into why Elektron refuses to pivot to AI/HPC, how they pitch mining to institutions like Fidelity, the self-correcting mechanism in hashprice, and why stranded energy in Brazil and Africa is the real opportunity nobody's pricing in.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Intro
0:47 – World Cup, bear markets & Bitcoin cycles
2:49 – The first-ever hash rate bear market explained
3:36 – How this affects one of the largest private miners
3:53 – Why this isn't the China ban (gradual grind vs sharp drop)
5:33 – Why miners are fleeing to AI/HPC
6:50 – Why Elektron sees this as an opportunity
8:19 – The risks in AI/HPC nobody is pricing
9:05 – Pitching mining to Fidelity & institutions
9:30 – Unit economics: mining is still profitable
10:32 – Cost curve & the self-correcting mechanism
11:14 – What happens when 60-70% of machines shut off
13:02 – Why institutions love contrarian miners
14:37 – The AI pivot & hash rate on the way back up
16:32 – When does mining beat just buying Bitcoin?
19:08 – Why this story is so hard to tell investors
20:25 – Market share, path dependency & hash rate dynamics
22:20 – Why now is one of the best times to start mining
22:45 – Capital & capital structure in mining
23:40 – Why the AI boom will boom and bust
24:19 – Building the optionality stack around energy
25:17 – Why AI/HPC innovation is still dangerously early
28:34 – electronics.dev: open-sourcing mining research
30:29 – The efficiency curve (log scale) explained
31:50 – Predicting the S23s with a regression line
32:14 – Why efficiency gains are about to flatten
32:42 – Network composition: S19s, S21s, S23s
33:38 – Machine-by-machine break-evens & cost to mine
34:58 – What a hashprice halving does to the network
36:11 – Summer heat & temperature-sensitive machines
36:36 – The shareholder-money era & underwater machines
40:17 – Stranded energy: wind in Brazil, curtailment credits
42:19 – Bitcoin's only customer is the protocol
42:39 – Old S19s at $30: 6-month ROI vs 10-year energy ROI
43:11 – Why Raphael is bullish on mining in Africa
47:28 – Speaking the language of energy & TradFi
48:08 – Batteries vs miners: a tenth of the capex
49:54 – "Buyers of last resort, sellers of first resort"
50:47 – RAPID FIRE: hashprice bottom, recycling, security & Brazil

📊 KEY TOPICS
- The first hash rate bear market — gradual grind vs the China ban shock
- Why 60-70% of machines could turn off at the next hashprice halving
- The self-correcting mechanism in hashprice and the cost curve
- Why Elektron refuses to pivot to AI/HPC (and the mispriced risks)
- When mining beats simply buying Bitcoin
- The efficiency curve flattening as R&D dries up
- Stranded energy, curtailment & why Bitcoin is the most flexible load ever invented

🔗 RESOURCES
📊 HashrateUp Hardware Deals: https://t.me/hashrateup
📩 Free 5-Day Bitcoin Mining Course: https://hashrateup.com/newsletter-sign-up/

#BitcoinMining #HashRate #BearMarket #BitcoinVsAI #Mining #Elektron

🛠 SPONSORED BY
- Luxor – Mining software, firmware & hashrate tools
https://luxor.tech/
- Altair Technology – ASIC hardware, replacement parts & mining infrastructure
Code: HASHRATEUP
https://altairtech.io/aff/125/

🔗 LINKS FROM THIS EPISODE
- Gridmetry: https://gridmetry.com
- Lukas Pfeiffer (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/lukas-pfeiffer-/

📄 OVERVIEW
In this episode of HashrateUp, Jesse sits down with Lukas Pfeiffer, CEO & Co-Founder of Gridmetry, to break down how Bitcoin miners in Northern Europe get paid to be flexible loads on the grid.

Lukas explains Gridmetry's flexibility-as-a-service model: qualifying miners for grid balancing markets, connecting steering software to site infrastructure, and running pre-qualification tests with regulators. Once live, miners can earn up to three separate revenue streams from a single megawatt hour — a 24/7 capacity fee for standing ready, payment for consuming power during negative price events, and Bitcoin mining itself. For some clients running older S19-class hardware, only 10% of income now comes from mining, with the rest from load balancing — at gross margins in the 60-70% range.

The conversation covers what it takes to qualify for FCR, mFRR, and FFR markets in the Nordics, why older air-cooled miners often outperform the latest ASICs in these programs, and why GPU/AI compute can't yet replicate this model economically. Jesse and Lukas also dig into the biggest blocker to scaling in Europe — not politics, but capital and perception — and why Gridmetry is already the largest balancing provider by activated hours in Sweden's SE1 zone.

They close with a rapid-fire round covering the best EU market for mining (Northern Sweden), why miners make better "batteries" than actual batteries, heat reuse vs. demand response, and Norway's ongoing Bitcoin mining moratorium.

⏱ TIMESTAMPS
0:00 – Intro
0:52 – Why Gridmetry focuses on Northern Europe
1:55 – State of the bear market & hash price at $30
4:07 – What Gridmetry does: flexibility-as-a-service explained
4:48 – Customer economics: demand response vs. heat reuse revenue
6:46 – Getting paid to be offline vs. mining at 95% uptime
7:40 – Three revenue streams from one megawatt hour
9:03 – How integration works for a mining farm
10:55 – Pricing model & pre-qualification process
11:44 – Requirements to qualify for demand response markets
12:42 – FCR, mFRR, FFR markets explained
13:23 – Preferred miner models (Bitmain, Canaan)
14:11 – Air-cooled vs. hydro-cooled fleets
14:27 – Can AI/GPU compute do the same? (not yet economical)
16:22 – Helping clients source machines
17:13 – Growth: 60MW under contract, where's next
20:48 – Biggest blockers: capital & perception in Europe
23:07 – Bridging Bitcoin and traditional energy conferences
28:12 – The unsolved problem of stranded power
33:34 – US behind-the-meter vs. Germany
34:54 – Rapid fire: best market, minimum size, old vs. new ASICs
35:39 – Are miners "better batteries" than actual batteries?
37:17 – Heat reuse vs. demand response: what's underrated
37:28 – Political blockers to scaling in Sweden
38:03 – Norway's mining moratorium explained
39:21 – Where to find Lukas & Gridmetry

🔗 RESOURCES
📲 HashrateUp Hardware Deals (Telegram): https://t.me/hashrateup
📩 Learn Bitcoin Mining (Free 5-Day Course): https://hashrateup.com/newsletter-sign-up/

#BitcoinMining #DemandResponse #Gridmetry #Nordics #HashrateUp