Key Highlights

● Hut 8 fell 5.7% pre-market while MARA Holdings and CleanSpark each slid nearly 5%.

● Bitcoin hit an overnight low of $76,400 after the roughly $6.3 billion Binance exploit.

● Amazon reported negative $42.4 billion trailing free Cash Flow against a $220 billion capex plan.

● Next week's AMD, Qualcomm and Palantir reports will add data on AI demand.

Bitcoin miners that have spent the past couple of years repositioning as hosts for AI and high-performance computing are facing a rare double hit on Friday. Their legacy Business depends on the price of bitcoin, which fell after the Binance hack. Their growth story depends on hyperscaler data-center spending, which the market is now questioning after this week's Big Tech results.

Pre-market losses were broad. According to market data as of 4:04 a.m. ET, Hut 8 (NASDAQ:HUT) was down 5.7%, Cipher Digital and Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) each 5.3%, and MARA Holdings (NASDAQ:MARA) and CleanSpark (NASDAQ:CLSK) nearly 5% each. A pre-market table at 8:23 a.m. had Cipher down 7.78% at $7.47. Its automated news note cited the AI infrastructure selloff and dilution from an $850 million convertible offering. Like the other automated notes, that explanation is unconfirmed, and the convertible's terms weren't verified.

Leg one: bitcoin

Bitcoin fell to an overnight low of $76,400, its lowest since Sept. 18, and traded near $77,350 at 7:09 a.m. ET, down 3.1% on the day, according to market data. The trigger was a roughly $6.3 billion exploit at Binance, which blockchain analytics firms attributed to North Korea-linked hackers. Binance said about $3 billion had been frozen and pledged to cover losses.

For a miner, a lower Bitcoin price directly cuts Revenue per coin mined while power and equipment costs stay the same. Crypto futures liquidations jumped to $1.57 billion, and the Fear and Greed index fell to 36. Sentiment is fragile even though spot bitcoin ETFs recorded a fourth straight day of inflows.

Leg two: the AI capex scare

The hosting pivot was built on a simple pitch. Miners own power contracts, land and grid connections, which are scarce resources for AI data centers. That pitch depends on hyperscalers continuing to spend. This week, investors started punishing that spending. Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) reaffirmed a $220 billion 2026 capex plan while reporting trailing 12-month free cash flow of negative $42.4 billion. Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) posted record capex of $51.4 billion and negative free cash flow of $9.1 billion. Amazon was down about 7% pre-market, and Alphabet dropped 12.6% on Thursday.

AI infrastructure names are being sold across the board. Nebius Group (NASDAQ:NBIS) was down 7.77% and Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) down 8.39% pre-market, per market data. One analyst said concerns about "AI-related cash burn" could "remain a significant headwind for the Nasdaq."

There's an irony here. The capex numbers that alarm shareholders of the hyperscalers are, on their face, Demand for data-center capacity. AWS revenue grew 39%, and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy projected AWS growth above 40% in 2027 and 2028. Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT)'s Azure grew 48%. If spending continues, hosts with power could still benefit. That's the bull argument.

The bear argument is that funding pressure on the buyers could slow new leases or push down pricing. It's also that miners financing their buildouts with convertibles and Equity are diluting shareholders before the revenue arrives.

What to watch

Watch bitcoin's response to Binance reopening withdrawals and the size of further asset freezes. On the AI side, next week's reports from AMD (NASDAQ:AMD), Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM) and Palantir (NASDAQ:PLTR) will add more data on AI demand. Also watch for any updates from miners on signed hosting contracts, which would show whether the pivot is producing revenue or still mostly a plan.

For now, the group trades as a high-beta proxy for two risk appetites at once. On a morning when both crypto and AI are out of favor, that makes them among the most exposed names on the Nasdaq Composite.