Bitcoin Mining Stocks Rise Up to 85% in 2026 as BTC Remains Below January Levels

Publicly traded Bitcoin mining companies are posting some of the strongest gains in the technology sector in 2026, even as Bitcoin itself still trades roughly 20% below its January 1 levels. According to data from Bitcoinminingstock.io, all ten of the largest public miners finished April in positive territory year-to-date. Industry leader TeraWulf gained 85%. BTC recovered about 17% over the past 30 days, but the full-year balance remains negative.

Mining stocks and BTC price move in opposite directions

Historically, public Bitcoin mining stocks tracked the price of the coin closely. When BTC climbed, revenue and company valuations followed. In 2026 this connection is loosening. Several miners are repurposing production capacity for GPU clusters and artificial intelligence data centers, earning market valuations that no longer depend solely on the coin's price.

Markets pay for predictability. Companies with long-term data center lease contracts trade at higher multiples than pure-play miners, whose income depends entirely on BTC price and network difficulty. That repricing is the main reason mining stocks have broken away from the coin in 2026. The market already treats some of these companies as technology businesses rather than crypto-only operations.

Who gained the most in the first quarter

The picture across the top-10 public miners as of April 2026:

• TeraWulf added 85% year-to-date.
• Hut 8 Corp. rose 67%, Riot Platforms gained 46%.
• Core Scientific added 40%, Applied Digital posted 37%.
• Bitdeer Technologies, the weakest performer in the top 10, added just 5%.

Outside the top 10 sits American Bitcoin Corp., a company linked to Donald Trump and backed by Hut 8. Its shares fell roughly 29% year-to-date, a sharp contrast with most of the industry.

The AI pivot: what leading companies have actually done

Riot Platforms posted $167.2 million in revenue for Q1 2026. Its data center division contributed $33.2 million, partially offsetting a decline in core mining income. CEO Jason Les described Q1 as an inflection point in the company's transition to a revenue-generating data center operator, according to CoinTelegraph.

"Q1 2026 was an inflection point for Riot. The company became a revenue-generating data center operator."

- Jason Les, CEO Riot Platforms, CoinTelegraph

Core Scientific is building an AI-focused campus in Texas with up to 1.5 gigawatts of capacity, of which about 1 gigawatt will be available for lease. Around 300 megawatts previously used for Bitcoin mining will be repurposed for data center operations. HIVE Digital Technologies reported a 219% year-over-year jump in quarterly revenue and signed a $30 million contract to deploy Nvidia GPUs for enterprise AI clients. MARA Holdings acquired a 64% stake in French AI data center company Exaion, expanding its infrastructure footprint outside the United States.

Risks for investors in mining stocks

Diversifying into AI does not remove all risks. The data center market is competitive. Major cloud providers have far more capital and engineering resources than any public miner. The miners' edge comes from large sites with direct access to industrial-scale electricity. That is a real advantage, but convincing enterprise clients to choose a new data center over AWS or Azure remains a challenge.

There is a second risk. If Bitcoin climbs sharply from current levels, AI diversification will matter less to the market. Companies that have already repurposed capacity could find themselves in an awkward spot: Bitcoin mining scaled back, AI scale not yet reached. That scenario is not the base case, but investors should keep it in mind.

Where the AI pivot leads

Bernstein said in a report last week that IREN Limited, the largest public miner by market cap, could eventually phase out Bitcoin mining entirely as it repurposes sites for GPU workloads. If that happens, the industry will have crossed a structural threshold. The full picture is covered by CoinTelegraph.

As long as Bitcoin does not stage a rapid recovery, the market will keep rewarding companies that move into AI and high-performance computing. The trend looks structural. Miners with their own land and power infrastructure hold a unique position for deploying AI capacity without lengthy permitting processes. That is why their stocks are rising while the coin sits still.