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Week 45 closed with further evidence that Bitcoin miners are successfully positioning themselves as credible providers of AI compute capacity, capable of winning tier-one hyperscale clients. Recent deals, including Cipher Mining’s agreement with AWS and Iris Energy’s contract with Microsoft, highlight the emergence of anchor enterprise customers and suggest the potential for a snowball effect as both firms leverage their 3GW+ power development pipelines to balance and diversify revenue streams between Bitcoin mining and AI compute. Elsewhere, Robinhood continued to show strong momentum, reporting solid earnings growth and advancing the integration of Bitstamp, now enabling the tokenization of more than 400 equities, which positions the platform closer to the evolving digital market structure. Even with the constructive news flow, macro conditions remain unclear with the ongoing US government shutdown keeping markets firmly in risk-off mode.
Week 45 Key developments in blockchain equities:
Index performance: The Index declined 6.0% this week, with Bitcoin down 8.4%, which weighed on blockchain-linked equities despite another round of generally strong corporate earnings across the sector. Macro catalysts were limited, and the ongoing U.S. government shutdown has introduced ambiguity into the Federal Reserve’s stance heading into the December FOMC meeting. Investors are increasingly focused on whether the Fed will maintain its data-dependent approach or signal a more accommodative tone given slowing inflation momentum, mixed labour data, and tightening liquidity conditions. In the absence of a clear policy signal, risk assets have struggled to find direction, leaving crypto and adjacent equities particularly sensitive to shifts in sentiment and flows.
Block Index key movers: 7-day top performers: Iris Energy (+26.5%), Cipher Mining (+26.1%), Nexon (+7.6%) 7-day worst performers: Softbank (-18.1%), Meta Platforms (-15.4%), Riot Platforms (14.4%)
Index constituents Cipher Mining and Iris Energy land their first hyperscaler customers - This week, Iris Energy announced a US$9.7 billion, five-year agreement with Microsoft to provide 200 MW of GPU cloud capacity, supported by a 20% upfront prepayment. The build-out will require roughly US$5.8 billion in CAPEX in partnership with NVIDIA and Dell, and will deploy around 78,000 GPUs at Iris’s Childress, Texas campus. In parallel, Cipher Mining revealed a US$5.5 billion, 15-year co-location agreement with AWS and simultaneously announced a 95%-owned joint venture to develop a 1 GW data center in West Texas. This follows Cipher’s earlier GPU hosting partnership with Fluidstack. Taken together, these announcements highlight how select Bitcoin miners are successfully leveraging their low-cost power footprints, adaptability from building ASIC shells, and transforming them to tier-one hyperscaler contracts. They strengthen the narrative that miners can transition from pure Bitcoin denomination toward high-performance compute and AI infrastructure revenues, just as demand for large-scale GPU campuses and energy-dense data center capacity continues to accelerate.
Earnings recap – key holdings:
Cipher Mining, Iris Energy, Robinhood, AMD, Ceres Inc – Positive
Hut-8, Block Inc - Mixed
Other news: Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) is launching STRE, a euro-denominated preferred credit instrument designed to finance Bitcoin purchases, targeting a €360 million raise and offering investors around a 10% annual yield, reflecting growing demand for structured Bitcoin exposure with income and downside protection. Meanwhile, Charles Schwab signalled plans to introduce crypto trading in the first half of 2026, intensifying competition in a crowded brokerage space. Canaan Inc. secured a US$72 million strategic investment from Brevan Howard, Galaxy Digital, and Weiss Asset Management, helping its R&D and capital position amid intensifying competition post-halving. Finally, Standard Chartered announced it will launch digital asset services in Hong Kong in 2026, supporting the region’s broader effort to re-establish itself as a regulated digital asset hub for institutional trading, custody, and tokenization.
