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Expert Predicts What Will Happen To Bitcoin Price Amid The Miner Shift To AI

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Expert Predicts What Will Happen To Bitcoin Price Amid The Miner Shift To AI

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Charles Edward, founder of the digital asset hedge fund Capriole Investments, has warned that BTC miners are rapidly shifting to artificial intelligence (AI), raising concerns about the future of mining activity and its impact on the Bitcoin price. He described the trend as both unexpected and worrying based on statements from publicly listed Bitcoin mining companies about future revenue targets. 

Bitcoin Price At Risk As Miners Pivot to AI

Edwards reported in an X post that every major public Bitcoin mining firm has announced plans to pivot toward AI services. According to the data he shared, these companies expect their Bitcoin revenue to fall sharply, from an average of about 90% to roughly 30% over the next two to three years.

Notably, Edwards pointed to stock market performance as one of the main signals behind the recent shift. He explained that companies that set aggressive AI revenue targets above 80% reportedly saw their share prices rise by an average of more than 500%. Meanwhile, firms that targeted less than 60% of their revenue to AI saw significantly weaker performance, with many posting negative returns over two years. 

He also highlighted changes in mining hardware investment strategies among Bitcoin miners. Edwards stated that several companies are not planning to buy new Bitcoin mining equipment and instead intend to run their existing machines until the end of their lifespan while redirecting future spending into AI infrastructure. 

His warning further included concerns about the long-term security of the Bitcoin network. He emphasized that mining companies provide the computing power that secures the network. As a result, Edwards argued that reduced investment in mining hardware, such as Application-Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), could weaken this security if fewer resources are committed to maintaining or expanding capacity. 

Separately, the recent pivot to AI could affect the Bitcoin price, which has already come under pressure as public BTC miners increasingly sell their holdings. Moreover, with fewer miners actively accumulating the cryptocurrency, the reduced buy-side demand could significantly weigh on price performance over time. 

Edwards also referenced the rise of quantum computing as an additional risk factor. He stated that advances in quantum computing could pose a serious challenge to Bitcoin’s cryptographic systems unless changes are made to the network’s code to address future technological threats. 

Overall, he emphasized that the current shift is significantly different from past downturns in the Bitcoin mining sector. He noted that previous mining capitulation events usually involve about 20% to 30% of miners exiting the market. However, he noted that mining companies collectively valued at more than $100 billion are signaling a major move away from cryptocurrencies. According to him, this widespread shift into AI suggests that industry leaders do not currently expect strong long-term growth in the BTC price. 

Public Bitcoin Miners Dump Thousands Of BTC In Q1

A recent report from TheEnergyMag, a research firm, revealed that public miners are increasingly selling off their BTC at a pace not seen since the final stages of the previous crypto bear market. The company noted that this selling activity has been fueled by a prolonged decline in mining revenue and economics, prompting operators to liquidate their holdings as many shift toward AI technology. 

Additionally, Hashprice previously dropped to near all-time lows around $33 per PH/s, making it increasingly difficult for miners to turn a profit. The 2024 halving event, which cut block rewards, has also further shrunk miners’ earnings, while network difficulty is dramatically higher than it was in 2021. 

According to the report, public miner companies such as MARA, Riot, Congo, CleanSpark, and Bitdeer have already collectively sold more than 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026. The research firm noted that this figure surpasses total net Bitcoin sales across all four quarters of 2025, setting a new industry record.

Bitcoin
BTC trading at $76,990 on the 1D chart | Source: BTCUSDT on Tradingview.com

Featured image from Gety Images, chart from Tradingview.com

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BTC falls back to $76,000 as Iran shuts Hormuz again

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BTC falls back to $76,000 as Iran shuts Hormuz again

One of the biggest short squeezes of 2026 came and went in a single session.

Bitcoin climbed to $78,000 late Friday, triggering $762 million in liquidations across 168,336 traders with $593 million of that on the short side, per CoinGlass.

By Saturday evening hours in Asia, bitcoin had pulled back to $76,091, up just 0.8% on the day, as Iran broadcast that the Strait of Hormuz was closed to maritime traffic again less than 24 hours after its foreign minister declared it fully open.

Two tanker owners told Bloomberg their vessels received Iranian radio transmissions shutting the waterway, with one supertanker reporting gunfire and aborting transit.

State news agency Nour said Hormuz had returned to “strict management and control by the armed forces” in response to a U.S. blockade of Iranian shipping. Several oil tankers that had raced toward the strait Friday on the initial reopening news turned back.

Friday’s breakout rally ended up in a $590 million shorts rout, with bets on bitcoin accounting for $381 million in liquidations, the largest share, followed by ether shorts at $167. Shorts outweighed longs by nearly four to one, the cleanest short-heavy breakdown in a liquidation event since February.

The setup had been building for weeks. Funding rates on bitcoin perpetuals were pinned negative, meaning shorts were paying longs a premium to hold their positions.

Friday’s Hormuz reopening was the catalyst that flipped it. Crude oil dropped nearly 10% to $85.90 per barrel on the initial headline, and bitcoin broke above the $76,000-$78,000 zone that has capped every rally attempt since the February 5 crash.

President Donald Trump then told reporters Friday night that Iran had agreed to an “unlimited” suspension of its nuclear program, though Tehran never confirmed the claim.

None of that survived into Saturday intact.

The market pattern is now familiar, where ceasefire headlines drives a rally but a reversal headline arrives before the breakout can consolidate. The forced unwind gets another setup to work against.

Ether held up better than bitcoin on the retreat, down just 0.2% over 24 hours while solana dropped 1.3% and dogecoin fell 2.1%. On a weekly basis, ether is still up 5.2%, XRP leads at 6.4%, BNB added 4.6%, and bitcoin sits at 4.5%.

Whether the $76,000 zone holds into Monday’s open is now the question. A clean weekly close above $76K would preserve the structural break even if the peace trade keeps whipsawing.

A loss of the level and bitcoin is back in the same range it has been trapped in since March, only this time with the short base that just got wiped looking to rebuild.

NatWest Group to Expand Scope of Financial Education Into UK Workplaces to Help Address Confidence Gap

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NatWest Group to Expand Scope of Financial Education Into UK Workplaces to Help Address Confidence Gap

WHY THIS MATTERS: The launch of a free, nationwide investment education program by a major incumbent like NatWest signals a critical structural response to the UK’s persistent advice gap. While Fintech innovations have lowered the barriers to entry for trading and saving, they have not solved the foundational issue of financial literacy. This move is highly significant because it connects directly to the ongoing FCA reforms aimed at making investment guidance more accessible. The data showing high employer-led demand, particularly among younger cohorts, positions this as a strategic intervention, not just a CSR exercise. By deploying hundreds of trained colleagues to deliver in-person workshops, NatWest is leveraging its physical network to address a market failure that digital platforms have largely ignored. This trend of incumbent banks integrating public education into their value proposition is a key development to watch, as it blends high-touch human expertise with wide-scale deployment, strengthening the industry’s social license to operate while priming the next generation of retail investors.

NatWest Group today announced a new financial education offering designed to demystify investing, as part of its free Financial Foundations programme.

The new investment-focused workshop, which will be available nationwide from May 2026, has been designed to help more people understand the basics of investing and build financial confidence.

The launch builds on the bank’s existing programme of workshops, which cover essential skills such as budgeting, saving and planning for the future. NatWest Group announced earlier this year that it was expanding the programme to reach the equivalent of around 1,000 people a week. The bank is aiming to support 50,000 people during 2026 with free financial education and guidance, delivered in workplaces, charities and community groups.

To help realise this ambition, NatWest Group is training an additional 300 colleagues to become facilitators to deliver sessions across the UK. These new facilitators will join an existing network of around 400 colleagues who already deliver practical, in-person workshops nationwide.

The news comes as a survey of 5,000 UK adults commissioned by NatWest Group in March 2026 found almost six in ten (58%) of those surveyed would be likely to take part in a financial education session on investing if it were offered in their workplace and that those aged under 35 were twice as likely to believe that employers have a responsibility for delivering financial education than those aged 35+ (9% vs 4%).

To mark the launch, NatWest Group CEO Paul Thwaite attended the first Financial Foundations investment workshop, visiting digital transformation specialists Barcode Warehouse in Newark, Nottinghamshire, and meeting employees taking part.

Paul Thwaite, CEO of NatWest Group, said: “A strong economy needs financial confidence and capability – the knowledge and skills that help people and families budget, save, invest and plan for the future. This is a vital part of our economic infrastructure and is often overlooked.

“Household saving and investment decisions play a critical role in the economy, yet too many people still feel uncertain or excluded from the knowledge and tools required to successfully make those decisions as part of their long term financial planning.

“Building a stronger culture of financial confidence across the full spectrum, from everyday budgeting and on to saving and investing, starts with education, whether in schools, workplaces or at key life moments. That’s why we’re extending our Financial Foundations programme to allow us to take more of our colleagues’ expertise into the communities we serve, helping more people build financial confidence and resilience.

“Our new investment workshop aims to break down barriers to investing by offering practical guidance, building on the existing programme, which has been running since 2024 and has helped develop confidence in saving and money management for over 31,000 people in the UK in 2025.”

The launch comes at a time of growing national focus on financial literacy, as new FCA reforms aim to make investment guidance more accessible and help address the UK’s long‑standing advice gap.

Economic Secretary to the Treasury, Lucy Rigby KC MP, said: “Financial literacy matters to the health of people’s finances, and to the health of our economy. I’m delighted to see NatWest Group committing to extend their financial education and literacy programme to give people access to new and improved financial skills.”

Alpesh Khakhar, CFO, The Barcode Warehouse, said: “Our colleagues found the Financial Foundations investment workshop extremely beneficial. Even for those with some experience of investing or a good understanding of managing money, the opportunity to have open conversations and receive simple, impartial guidance helped to break down barriers that can exist. We’re looking forward to more of our colleagues across the UK having the chance to take part in future sessions.”

Using its strong regional network and position as the UK’s biggest business bank, NatWest Group has designed its Financial Foundations programme to take colleagues’ expertise into the places where customers live and work, with sessions delivered from Stornoway to Plymouth.

Last year, 1,500 Financial Foundations workshops were delivered to more than 31,000 participants and, alongside NatWest Thrive, its partner programme for young people, more than one million people were reached.

Feedback shows that 92% of participants would recommend the workshops, and 90% feel more confident about managing or protecting their finances.

Today’s announcement forms part of NatWest Group’s five point ‘Growing Together’ plan, which sets out how the bank will help build the conditions for UK-wide growth by backing powerful regions, championing mid-market companies, strengthening infrastructure and housing, boosting financial confidence among families and young people, and supporting the innovators shaping the future economy.

As well as Financial Foundations, NatWest Group also offers free, confidential one-to-one Worksite Financial Health Checks (FHCs) to employees of business customers who want more personalised support no matter who they bank with. FHCs, which are also available in branch and on videocall, are delivered by a trained senior personal banker and designed to help people take charge of their finances and work towards their goals with confidence.

NatWest Group’s Financial Foundations programme is free and open to all businesses and community groups. To find out more or request a workshop, please contact: financial.foundations@natwest.com.

FF NEWS TAKE: This is more than a public service announcement; it is a smart, strategic move that subtly reshapes the client acquisition funnel. NatWest is moving the needle by formalizing financial literacy as a mass-market product at the exact moment regulatory focus on the advice gap intensifies. What we must watch for is whether other tier-one banks follow suit. If scaled effectively, this free education model could become the new premium pipeline, achieving the democratisation of finance not through tech alone, but through trusted, large-scale institutional education.

Liz Truss warns UK faces decline, backs bitcoin and starts CPAC UK

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Liz Truss warns UK faces decline, backs bitcoin and starts CPAC UK

Liz Truss, the U.K.’s shortest-serving prime minister, said the country’s economy has been stagnating for decades and many of the problems result from a lack of sound money and the debasement of the currency, an erosion in the value of sterling caused by inflation and the printing of new banknotes.

Truss, who led a Conservative government for 45 days in 2022, said the financial situation strengthened her interest in bitcoin BTC$75,750.45, which some observers see as a tool against debasement. She said she’s “very interested” in the cryptocurrency, which she first encountered when working at the Treasury and mentioned it there “to shake things up.” Truss was Chief Secretary to the Treasury for about two years until July 2019.

“A lot of the problems we have are due to debasement of our currency and lack of sound money,” Truss said in an interview with CoinDesk. The absence of serious debate around money in academia and government had become “quite sinister,” and discussions about monetary policy had become “a taboo” within government, despite its central role in driving economic outcomes.

For Truss, bitcoin sits alongside a wider concern about centralization and control. She warned the current system is geared toward increasing “centralized control” and limiting financial independence, particularly through regulation and taxation, and positioned bitcoin as part of a pushback against that trend.

The economy is on a “very negative trajectory,” she said, warning the country faces long-term decline driven by weak growth, rising state control and what she sees as a failure of monetary policy.

“We are getting relatively poorer, very quickly,” she said, pointing to high taxes, regulation and energy costs that make “the risk often not worth the reward” for entrepreneurs. “There’s a massive disincentive to work in this country.”

Reflecting on the fallout from Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng’s 2022 mini-budget that characterized her premiership, she maintained the resulting market turmoil exposed hidden fragilities rather than caused them. “There was a tinderbox in the system that people didn’t know about,” she said, pointing to leveraged pension strategies.

CPAC UK

Now outside government, Truss is focused on building a political movement, including CPAC UK, a three-day conference aimed at bringing together activists, entrepreneurs and voices from across the “sovereignty and liberty” movement. “We need a movement of people who understand what the problem is,” she said.

Framing the stakes bluntly, she added: “There are two choices, either we’re finished or we change it.”

This Bitcoin mining pool lets users keep a whole BTC. It just found its second block

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This Bitcoin mining pool lets users keep a whole BTC. It just found its second block

A bitcoin mining pool built to reject both the industrial pay-per-share model and the pure lottery approach has now proved its design works. Twice.

Upstart mining pool Parasite Pool mined block 945,601 on Friday morning, its second block since launching in April 2025 and roughly 48 days after the pool’s first block at #938,713 in late February.

The block carried 7,398 transactions and 0.002 BTC in fees, landing with bitcoin trading at $76,213.

The pool operates on a hybrid model that has no parallel in mainstream mining. A winning miner that solves a block receives 1 BTC outright, with the remaining 2.125 BTC plus fees distributed proportionally among all pool participants based on shares submitted since the previous block.

There are no fees to take part in this pool, and payouts are routed through the Lightning Network.

Mining secures bitcoin by having computers compete to solve a cryptographic puzzle every 10 minutes, with the winner earning the right to add the next block of transactions to the blockchain and collecting a reward.

That reward is currently 3.125 BTC plus whatever transaction fees are bundled in, worth about $238,000 at Friday’s price, down from 6.25 BTC after the April 2024 halving and scheduled to drop again to 1.5625 BTC in 2028.

The competition is dominated by industrial operators running warehouse-scale facilities of specialized ASIC hardware that pulls enough electricity to rival a small city.

Mining pools exist to smooth the variance of who finds blocks, bundling the hashrate of thousands of participants so the proceeds get split by contribution rather than winner-take-all.

Parasite is founded by ZK Shark, the pseudonymous creator of Ordinal Maxi Biz (an NFT collection on Bitcoin), and targets the home miner.

Pure solo pools like CKpool pay the full block reward minus a 2% fee to the finder, but statistical reality means the vast majority of participants never see a block.

But Parasite’s answer is to split the difference. The 1 BTC finder’s fee preserves the lottery payday, while proportional distribution of the remainder keeps satoshis flowing to participants during the stretches between blocks.

The second block carries more weight than the first. The pool retained hashrate through the 48-day gap between payouts, and the proportional distribution mechanics now have two rounds of real validation rather than one.

Parasite’s hashrate currently sits at 52 petahashes per second, down from a peak of 182 PH/s in June 2025, according to the pool’s dashboard. That works out to roughly 0.005% of bitcoin’s estimated 1-zetahash network hashrate.

The pattern around solo and small-pool mining has been running hot.

CoinDesk reported earlier this year on a 230 terahash-per-second home miner who beat 1-in-28,000 odds to claim block 943,411 and a $210,000 reward, and on a separate operator who rented $75 of cloud hashrate to validate block 938,092 via CKpool for a $200,000 payday. Both wins followed the CKpool model of winner-take-all minus a 2% fee.

Parasite is the first pool at this scale to test whether a hybrid split keeps participants mining through the losing stretches. A third block inside the next two months would settle the case for Parasite’s model, while a six-month drought would suggest the first two were the easy ones.

Balancing Innovation and Trust in Payments

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Balancing Innovation and Trust in Payments

Payments have always powered our daily lives – from the morning coffee to global business transactions. But today, the landscape is shifting faster than ever.

Access the full report here: https://www.finastra.com/financial-services-state-nation-survey-2026

⚡ Payments are now instant
🔍 Transparency is no longer optional
📲 Choice has exploded – from traditional rails to digital wallets and beyond
💡 And digitisation is unlocking entirely new customer experiences

With all this progress comes a critical challenge: how do we innovate without compromising trust?

Because no matter how fast or seamless payments become, one thing must remain constant – they must work every time, securely and reliably.

The future of payments lies in striking that balance: delivering richer, faster experiences while safeguarding the trust customers depend on every day.

SOL Open Interest Jumps 20% As Traders Eye Rally To $100

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SOL Open Interest Jumps 20% As Traders Eye Rally To $100

Key takeaways:

  • Solana maintains its market dominance in DEX volume and TVL despite SOL’s underperformance versus its peers.

  • Easing sell pressure from volatile geopolitics and a resurgence in memecoin activity could catalyze a SOL price rally to $100.

Solana’s native token SOL (SOL) gained 10% within five days, reaching a three-week high on Friday. This price movement followed a generalized excitement after the US and Iran announced a ceasefire extension, which led to an 8% decline in crude Brent oil prices. Demand for SOL futures surged as open interest jumped by 20% since Sunday, causing traders to question if the SOL price is bound for $100.

SOL futures aggregate open interest, SOL. Source: CoinGlass

SOL futures aggregate open interest rose to $4.2 billion on Friday, up from $3.5 billion on Sunday. While an increased appetite for leveraged positions indicates institutional investor participation, longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) remain matched at all times. However, any eventual imbalance in the demand for leveraged positions should be visible within the perpetual futures markets.

Under neutral conditions, the annualized funding rate should range between 5% and 10% to compensate for the cost of capital. 

SOL perpetual futures annualized funding rate. Source: Laevitas

Data showing a 3% rate signals low confidence from bulls, although this remains distant from the extreme fear levels seen on April 7 when SOL prices plunged below $80. A negative funding rate indicates that shorts are paying to keep positions open, which is fairly unusual in cryptocurrency markets.

Total crypto market capitalization (USD billions, left) vs. SOL/USD. Source: TradingView

Despite the recent gains, SOL has underperformed the broader cryptocurrency market by 13% in 2026. A reduced appetite for decentralized applications (DApps) likely played a part, but the Solana network remains a strong contender due to its vice-leadership position in Total Value Locked and dominance in decentralized exchange (DEX) volumes.

Solana network weekly DApps revenue, USD. Source: DefiLlama

Solana network DApp revenues have trended down over the past few months, currently totaling nearly $16 million per week. However, this trajectory is not exclusive to Solana; DApps on the Ethereum network accrued $10 million in revenue over the past week, while BNB Chain stood at $4 million. Fading interest in DEX activity remains the primary driver behind this declining revenue across the industry.

Memecoin rally, shorts covering could send SOL to $100

Multiple memecoins jumped 40% or higher between Wednesday and Friday, which likely contributed to the heightened demand for SOL futures. 

Best performing Solana tokens in 7 days. Source: CoinGecko

During the previous memecoin rally in early 2025, Solana emerged as a leader in terms of users and activity, especially following the launch of the Official Trump (TRUMP) memecoin. Consequently, any sign of increased demand for memecoins is typically viewed as a positive indicator for SOL price.

Related: Bitcoin rises, oil falls after Iran says Strait of Hormuz is open

Solana has proved itself a serious contender for the next wave of DApp users, whether centered on AI agents or speculative trading. The robustness of its validators and the integrated user experience provided by Web3 wallets make a compelling case for a sustained SOL price rally.

Ultimately, weak demand for bullish leverage on futures places little constraint on SOL regaining momentum. Reduced pressure from the war in Iran may serve as the catalyst for SOL shorts to cover their positions, providing the necessary spark for a potential upside toward $100.