According to @paoloardoino, Bitcoin and AI will compete for scarce electricity in a long-run equilibrium, elevating power as a critical input for both industries, source: @paoloardoino on X. For traders, AI-driven data centre electricity demand is projected to reach 620–1,050 TWh in 2026 from roughly 460 TWh in 2022, implying tighter grids and potential upward pressure on wholesale power prices in key hubs, source: International Energy Agency 2024. Bitcoin mining’s annual electricity use has typically ranged around the low hundreds of TWh, estimated near 70–110 TWh in 2023–2024, which places miners in overlapping procurement markets with hyperscale AI operators, source: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CBECI) 2024. Electricity is the dominant operating cost for BTC miners and directly drives USD/TH/day hashprice profitability, so persistent power inflation can compress margins, increase the likelihood of miner BTC sales, and slow hashrate growth, source: Luxor Hashrate Index 2024; CoinShares Research 2023. Actionable monitoring for trading impact: track ERCOT and other hub power prices and curtailment events, global hashrate and difficulty changes, and the Luxor hashprice index as leading indicators of miner stress that can influence BTC supply dynamics, source: ERCOT 2024; Blockchain.com network data 2024; Luxor Hashrate Index 2024.

According to the source, Bitcoin mining is energy-intensive and concentrated in key grids like Texas, where demand response programs can rapidly curtail miners, affecting network hashrate until difficulty adjusts every 2016 blocks, source: U.S. Energy Information Administration; Electric Reliability Council of Texas; Bitcoin whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto. The April 2024 halving reduced block rewards to 3.125 BTC, lifting breakeven thresholds and making electricity price spikes a direct risk to miner margins and uptime, source: Bitcoin protocol at block 840000; Hashrate Index miner breakeven analyses. Traders can monitor miner balance changes and miner-to-exchange flows as a gauge of potential BTC supply from operators under margin stress, source: Glassnode Research miner net position change metrics. Power price proxies such as Henry Hub natural gas futures and ERCOT real-time power prices help anticipate miner profitability shifts that can influence the hashrate growth trajectory, source: U.S. Energy Information Administration; ERCOT market data. Cambridge data shows geographic and energy-mix shifts since China’s 2021 mining restrictions, highlighting varied carbon intensity by region and policy risk for mining equities and BTC sentiment, source: Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance Bitcoin Mining Map and CBECI. Mining curtailment revenues and power credits can materially affect public miner cash flows, altering sell discipline and equity beta to BTC, which traders should reflect in positioning, source: Riot Platforms SEC filings; ERCOT demand response program documentation.