Bitcoin mining difficulty decreased by 7.76% on March 21 to 133.79 T, marking the second-largest decline this year. JPMorgan analysts predict that Bitcoin mining costs have fallen to $77,000, still higher than spot prices. More and more mining companies are pivoting their infrastructure toward AI computing power. Core Scientific plans to sell Bitcoin holdings in 2026 to fund AI expansion, while Bitdeer has liquidated its Bitcoin positions. Multiple companies are formulating diversification strategies.

Gate News report: On March 21, the 2026 Alliance Work Conference and First Phase Ecosystem Activity of the National Artificial Intelligence Application Pilot Base (Energy Sector, Power Direction) was held in Guangzhou. Eight enterprise institutions, including South China Grid Digital Group AI Research Center, Huawei, ZTE, and Baidu, were officially inducted as the first batch of representatives into the pilot base.

Gate News 消息，3 月 18 日，ShapeShift 创始人 Erik Voorhees 针对美 SEC 发布加密资产解释性指引公开表态，认为此次指引的意义在于 SEC 承认自身权力边界。Erik Voorhees 对比 Gensler 执政期间对实用代币的大规模执法行动，指出当时导致创业者设计实用型代币的意愿大幅下降，转而催生了大量

March 18th, Alibaba Cloud announced price increases for its AI computing power and storage products of up to 34% due to a global surge in AI demand and supply chain cost increases. Computing cards and file storage products also saw significant price hikes. This round of price increases is primarily driven by a surge in Token invocation volumes, with Alibaba Cloud prioritizing the fulfillment of AI computing power demand for Token services.

Decentralized GPU computing infrastructure provider Aethir officially launched its managed Kubernetes service on March 17, aimed at expanding into enterprise-grade AI infrastructure. The service supports rapid cluster deployment, is compatible with the latest GPUs, and starts at $1.45/hour with enterprise-level security guarantees. Through cost optimization, Aethir has provided computing power services across 95 countries globally, serving 150 enterprise customers.

Gate News report states that on March 17, Tether's QVAC Fabric launched the world's first cross-platform LoRA fine-tuning framework for Microsoft BitNet (1-bit LLM), significantly lowering the threshold for VRAM and computing power required for large model training. The framework supports LoRA fine-tuning and inference acceleration on Intel, AMD, Apple Silicon M series, and mobile GPUs (including Adreno, Mali, and Apple Bionic).

The U.S. Department of Justice disclosed that Los Angeles County former deputy sheriff Koberger was sentenced to 63 months in prison for his involvement in cryptocurrency extortion and false law enforcement. The case involves abuse of police power and commercial extortion, reflecting the risks of law enforcement personnel participating in cryptocurrency industry crimes. Related individuals are still under investigation.

Artificial intelligence's increased demand for electricity has raised concerns about Bitcoin mining security. As AI data centers generate higher revenue per megawatt than Bitcoin mining, miners are shifting toward AI. Cryptocurrency traders believe this could lead to a decline in Bitcoin's hash rate, increasing the risk of network attacks. However, Bitcoin developers argue that the difficulty adjustment mechanism will attract miners back to the network.

CoinCodex selected eight top-tier ASIC miners, with ICERIVER's ALEO AE3 successfully making the list. This miner, designed specifically for the zkSNARK algorithm and optimized for the Aleo blockchain, delivers a maximum hashrate of 2GH/S, consumes 3400W of power, and is scheduled for release in November 2025.

摩根士丹利报告指出，人工智能将在2026年迎来关键突破，但全球基础设施尚未准备好。算力提升可能带来模型智能水平倍增，但也造成电力供应压力，需寻找替代方案。AI将深刻影响劳动力市场，公司规模将缩小，成为推动经济结构变化的重要力量。