Bitdeer Technologies Group (BTDR), a Bitcoin mining and infrastructure company, is ramping up its self-mining operations amid weakening demand for mining rigs — highlighting how some hardware makers are shifting strategies to stay competitive during the current Bitcoin bull market.

According to an Oct. 9 Bloomberg report, Bitdeer is accelerating its pivot toward mining Bitcoin (BTC) on its own equipment, effectively competing with the same clients that purchase its rigs.

The report cited Bitdeer’s latest filings showing a major year-over-year expansion of its mining capacity in August and its stated goal of becoming one of the world’s top five Bitcoin miners.

Bitdeer appears to be nearing that target. The company mined 375 BTC in August, ranking sixth globally behind MARA Holdings (MARA), IREN (IREN), Cango (CANG), CleanSpark (CLSK) and Riot Platforms (RIOT), according to industry data.

Large Bitcoin miner output levels in August. Source: The Miner Mag

Industry publication The Miner Mag recently noted a broader trend among hardware manufacturers seeking to offset subdued rig sales by monetizing their own mining capacity. Both Canaan and Bitdeer were cited as examples, with Bitdeer nearly tripling its proprietary hashrate to 22.5 exahashes per second between December 2024 and July 2025.

“In both cases, surplus inventory that once would have been shipped to customers is now being deployed in-house,” The Miner Mag wrote in its Miner Weekly newsletter on Sept. 4.

Wolfie Zhao, an analyst at The Miner Mag, told Bloomberg that he expects “large miners to remain cautious on fleet expansion for the foreseeable future.”

Related: Bitcoin mining stocks outperform BTC as investors bet on AI pivots

Bitcoin miners continue to diversify even as BTC price hits new all-time highs

As Bitcoin continues its record-breaking bull run, recently surpassing $126,000, mining economics have grown increasingly challenging, particularly following the 2024 halving that cut block rewards in half.

In response, several mining companies are diversifying their business models, deploying hardware toward new workloads such as artificial intelligence and data center infrastructure. Recent examples include Hive Digital, IREN and TeraWulf, which have expanded into AI hosting or high-performance computing services.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin’s network difficulty — a measure of how hard it is to mine new blocks — continues to climb to fresh all-time highs, extending a long-term trend that has tightened margins and operating conditions for major miners.

Bitcoin hashrate versus price. Source: CryptoQuant

With AI compute demand surging and major tech companies pledging hundreds of billions of dollars in new data center investments, miners are finding fresh opportunities by repurposing or upgrading existing facilities to serve that market. 

As Cointelegraph explained, some miners are also leasing excess capacity to AI companies, creating a more stable revenue stream during periods of crypto price volatility.

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