According to BlockBeats, on August 18, as Bitcoin prices fell and mining yields continued to be under pressure, Bitcoin mining companies that shifted to AI and high-performance computing (AI/HPC) are gaining higher valuations and more stable revenue expectations.

Over the past year, shares of TerraWulf (WULF), IREN, and Cipher Digital (CIFR) have all more than doubled, while MARA Holdings (MARA), which shifted its focus to AI later, has fallen by about 40% during the same period. Currently, the price of Bitcoin mining hashes has dropped from approximately $63 per PH/s in July of last year to approximately $31.8, leading to an increasing number of mining companies shutting down their equipment. The Bitcoin network hashrate has also decreased from 1.14 ZH/s to approximately 900 EH/s, a drop of about 21%.

According to CoinShares data, as of the first quarter of 2026, the average enterprise value multiple of mining companies with AI/HPC contracts was approximately 12.3 times, while that of pure Bitcoin mining companies was only 5.9 times; during the same period, the total value of AI/HPC contracts signed across the industry reached approximately $70 billion.

Recently, the AI transformation of mining companies has accelerated further. Riot Platforms signed a 20-year lease agreement with Anthropic last week, a contract worth approximately $9.1 billion. The market believes that the truly scarce assets for mining companies are not Bitcoin itself, but rather low-cost electricity, data center infrastructure, and large-scale computing power operation capabilities, which can be converted for high-growth computing businesses such as AI.

However, there is still room for recovery in pure Bitcoin mining. CoinShares estimates that if the price of Bitcoin returns to its all-time high of approximately $126,000 last October, the hash rate could rise to around $59/PH/s, and mining companies' profitability is expected to improve significantly.

According to BlockBeats, on August 18, prediction market platform Kalshi submitted regulatory documents to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to apply for the launch of perpetual futures linked to stock indices, further expanding from prediction markets into the traditional financial derivatives field.

Documents show that Kalshi's proposed "US500" perpetual futures will track the MerQube US Large Cap Index, which covers 500 large companies listed in the United States. Perpetual futures have no expiration date, and traders do not need to hold the underlying asset; the contract continuously tracks the price of the underlying asset through a funding rate mechanism.

In late May of this year, Kalshi received approval to launch cryptocurrency perpetual futures, which officially went live in June. The company subsequently applied to launch perpetual futures for precious metals such as gold and silver, and this time has further applied for perpetual futures for copper and stock indexes.

Kalshi stated that global perpetual futures trading volume will exceed $90 trillion by 2025, and its own product's nominal trading volume surpassed $1 billion within a week of its launch.

Kalshi's foray into perpetual futures trading had previously raised concerns among traditional exchanges. Shares of CME Group and Cboe Global Markets were pressured by the US approval of domestic perpetual futures, with CME even filing a lawsuit in federal court regarding the regulatory approval. As of this writing, CME is up approximately 1.26%, and Cboe is up approximately 0.12%.

According to BlockBeats, on August 18, Bank of America (BofA) believes that SanDisk's recently announced long-term growth targets may provide a reference for the valuation reshaping of Micron (MU), and reiterated its "buy" rating on Micron with a target price of $1,550, which is about 61% higher than the $963 share price used in the report.

SanDisk projected at its investor day that future sales will grow at an average annual rate of nearly 15%, with gross margins expected to rise to over 80% by fiscal year 2030. BofA believes that if Micron can also maintain similar growth and profit margins driven by AI-driven HBM demand and supply discipline, its business may no longer be considered solely as a traditional cyclical storage business.

BofA projects Micron's FY30 earnings per share could reach $200 to $250. If its AI-related HBM business is given a higher valuation, its profitability and valuation potential will further expand. The bank also predicts that as the storage industry's profitability improves, Micron may achieve a price-to-earnings ratio of 12 to 15 times in the future, rather than being priced simply as a traditional storage cyclical stock.

Regarding cash flow, BofA expects Micron to potentially increase its share buyback program after the CHIPS Act restrictions expire on December 9, 2026. The bank anticipates that Micron's free cash flow over the past 12 months may exceed $80 billion by then, theoretically sufficient to repurchase nearly 10% of its market capitalization annually, thereby further boosting EPS growth by reducing equity.

BofA believes that Micron needs to pay attention to three key factors going forward: whether its high gross margin can be sustained, whether management can strictly implement its return on capital plan, and the demand and price trends of HBM.