Core Scientific Expects to Sell Over 2,500 Bitcoin in Q1 to Fund AI Pivot
Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) expects to sell all of its 2,500 bitcoin holdings in the first quarter of 2026, as the company seeks to boost liquidity and fund capital expenditures tied to its AI compute colocation expansion.
In its annual report filed Monday, the company said it “currently anticipates that the majority” of sales of its bitcoin reserves would occur during the first quarter, though the timing and amount will depend on market conditions and liquidity needs and may change. The filing did not specify whether any sales had already taken place as of the report date.
As of Dec. 31, 2025, Core Scientific held 2,537 bitcoin with a carrying fair value of $222.0 million, based on an average price of $101,639 per coin during 2025. The balance marked a sharp increase from 256 bitcoin at the end of 2024. All of the year-end holdings were produced through the company’s self-mining operations.
The accumulation came despite what the company described as significant capital commitments related to its high-density colocation initiatives, which are designed to support AI and other compute-intensive workloads. Rather than regularly selling mined bitcoin to cover expenses, Core Scientific retained most of its production during 2025, building a reserve that grew nearly tenfold year over year.
However, that strategy appears to be shifting in 2026.
“During 2026, we currently expect to monetize substantially all of our bitcoin holdings, subject to market conditions, to enhance liquidity and fund our planned capital expenditures and other cash requirements,” the company said in the filing.
In recent months, several publicly traded miners have highlighted more active monetization strategies. Cango sold 4,451 bitcoin for about $305 million and planned to use the proceeds to reduce leverage and support its AI shift. Bitdeer, which has been repositioning toward AI and data center infrastructure, disclosed that it reduced its bitcoin treasury balance to zero.
Riot, which has also been pursuing an AI/HPC strategy alongside mining, disclosed in its annual report that it sold 5,363 bitcoin in 2025 for proceeds of about $535.5 million, describing sales decisions as tied to cash requirements for operations and expansion.
