Two prominent Bitcoin miners are facing growing liquidity pressures despite headline cash balances, as their strategic shifts into AI data centers require significant capital and yield only modest near-term revenue. Hut 8’s latest quarterly filing reveals that of its $7.02 billion in cash and equivalents, only $233.6 million—just 3.3%—is unrestricted and available for general corporate use. The remaining $6.8 billion is locked in construction and debt-service reserve accounts tied to the River Bend and Beacon Point AI data-centre projects, and cannot be repurposed for other corporate needs.
Both projects are financed through subsidiary-level notes that isolate Hut 8 Corp from the debt obligations. River Bend’s $3.25 billion of 6.19% notes and Beacon Point’s $4.25 billion of 6.13% notes are payable solely by their respective special-purpose entities, with interest payments beginning in November 2026 and principal not due until 2028–2030. Hut 8 acknowledged the risk that cost overruns or delays could force it to inject additional parent equity, a threshold the company has not disclosed. The $177.1 million second-quarter net loss was driven by a $138.6 million unrealized loss on digital assets, while operating cash burn reached $32.8 million in the first half.
Meanwhile, Hyperscale Data is selling Bitcoin to finance its own AI transformation, even though the effort is expected to contribute less than 17% of its projected 2027 revenue. The company sold 150.5 BTC for $9.6 million in early August, reducing its treasury to 958.5 BTC, and borrowed approximately $30 million against part of it via the Morpho protocol. Management projects 2027 revenue of $300–350 million, but the Michigan data centre and AI infrastructure will generate only $40–50 million. Most of the top line will come from lending, digital assets and portfolio companies. The AI pivot is a long-term bet: a neocloud contract could generate over $1.2 billion over 20 years, but near-term liquidity remains tight.
Hut 8 carries a $200 million Bitcoin-backed loan from FalconX due in April 2027, with a 130% margin-call threshold. Its total Bitcoin holdings stand at 17,316 BTC, of which 4,850 are pledged as collateral. Both firms exemplify miners trading near-term Bitcoin liquidity for an AI future that is still years away from delivering meaningful cash flow.
