Bitcoin miners seen as demand response tool amid AI power crunch: Bloomberg

The role of Bitcoin miners is being re-evaluated for their ability to instantly cut power usage amid rising electricity demand from AI data centers, Bloomberg reported. Unlike AI data centers that run around the clock and struggle to reduce their load during demand surges, Bitcoin miners can be powered down in milliseconds without losing work, making them a viable demand response tool for grid operators. In this context, Ethan Vera, COO of crypto mining services firm Luxor Technologies, said that AI data centers generate hundreds of gigawatts of fixed power demand in the U.S. He added that while most AI data centers would incur significant losses if they were to halt LLM training and inference, BTC miners can organically reduce their power consumption without interrupting their work.