Core Scientific has secured a $500 million loan facility from Morgan Stanley, with an accordion feature that could extend total commitments to $1 billion, in the most significant institutional endorsement yet of the digital infrastructure company’s transformation from Bitcoin miner to artificial intelligence compute provider.
The deal, priced at the Secured Overnight Financing Rate plus 250 basis points, will fund data center development, including equipment procurement, pre-development costs, real estate acquisition, and energy contracting.
“This strengthens our liquidity and enhances our financial flexibility as we execute our development and go-to-market strategy,” said Adam Sullivan, chief executive of Core Scientific. “With this additional financing capacity, we can operate decisively by deploying capital to expedite project-ready-for-service timelines, making us an even more compelling infrastructure provider for customers.”
The announcement lands at a moment of acute pain across the Bitcoin mining industry, with Core Scientific’s institutional backing providing the kind of financial wiggle room that its less-diversified peers cannot afford.
Why are miners struggling to stay afloat?
The economics of Bitcoin mining have deteriorated sharply since the last halving event. The 2024 halving event cut the block reward from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC. Coupled with the current falling prices and rising energy costs, many BTC miners are being pushed into a prolonged squeeze.
CryptoQuant founder Ki Young Ju recently shared data from MARA’s latest regulatory filings showing an average production cost of $70,027 per Bitcoin, a figure that barely covers the coin’s current market price and leaves very little margin for operators without structural advantages.
Miner revenue per petahash fell from a peak of $70 to approximately $31 as of the time of writing.
Only a few operators are expected to sustain operations through the current cycle. Against that backdrop, the appeal of AI colocation, which can generate three to twenty-five times more revenue per kilowatt than Bitcoin mining at margins between 80 and 90%, has become difficult to argue against.
Who is selling their Bitcoin, and who is holding on?
Core Scientific sold approximately 1,900 BTC for $175 million in January and has mentioned that it plans to liquidate all its remaining holdings in 2026 to fund its AI transition.
Bitdeer, another miner that is undergoing the pivoting process, has already disposed of its BTC holdings, reducing its treasury to zero as of late February, selling 1,132 BTC in a single week to fund land acquisitions and AI infrastructure expansion. Its CEO, Ben Gagnon, stated that they are no longer a Bitcoin company.
MARA Holdings, which has more than 53,000 BTC on its balance sheet, making it the most committed public holder of the asset in the miner class, has reviewed its policy to allow it to sell some of the BTC in its treasury.
CleanSpark, which holds more than 13,300 BTC, has taken a more sophisticated approach, which is to continue mining, monetizing output, and channeling resources to hyperscalers. It just shared its February numbers with the public, where it revealed that it sold 553.02 BTC out of the 568 it produced, adding that it expanded its hyperscale-ready infrastructure platform.
CleanSpark’s CEO Matt Schultz stated, “We are advancing our AI and high-performance compute initiatives while maintaining our focus on world-class operational excellence in bitcoin mining.”
The Morgan Stanley facility shows which camp Core Scientific belongs to.
If miners are selling Bitcoin, who is actually buying it?
Corporate companies with no history in the mining sector continue to go bullish on Bitcoin, with YY Group Holdings, a global workforce solutions and facilities management company with more than 500,000 members across 12 countries, announcing today, March 5, 2026, the adoption of a long-term corporate treasury strategy to hold Bitcoin as a primary reserve asset.
CEO Mike Fu described the digital asset as “a durable, scarce digital asset that complements our long-term capital strategy and provides us with enhanced global market access,” citing its fixed supply of 21 million coins, inflation-hedge potential, and 24/7 global liquidity as key advantages.
The move follows a pattern established by Strategy and a growing cohort of smaller listed companies that have adopted corporate Bitcoin treasuries, even as the miners who are tasked with producing those coins continue to depart from the asset class in droves.
Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/core-scientific-ai-boost-miner-count-pennies/