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Major media outlets report that "cryptocurrencies are dead" for the tenth time.

If the current situation (spring 2026) does not meet these criteria (for example, the market is in a sideways trend after a rise), then the ideal entry point would be to wait for either a deep correction or a clear breakout of a multi-month downward trend on weekly charts.

Phase "Winter / Capitulation" (Ideal Entry): A period when prices have fallen by 80–90% from the highs, fear in the market is at its maximum (fear and greed index 10-20), most investors have gone into negative returns. This is the moment of accumulation by large players.

📉 Overall decline: Almost 40% of altcoins are trading near their historical lows, which exceeds the figures of the previous bearish phase. The market is suffering from geopolitics (war in Iran, rising oil prices to $105) and capital fragmentation due to the emergence of millions of new tokens.

Altseason Delay: Predictions about a large-scale 'altseason' are being pushed to the end of 2026, as major projects have not met investor expectations.

Actions: Repurposing data centers for cloud computing and AI tenants.

This trend highlights a strategic shift: infrastructure originally built for cryptocurrency is now being used to meet the high demand for computing power for AI.$TAO $RENDER

Segment

Large bitcoin miners are massively transitioning to the AI segment, re-equipping data centers for neural networks (NVIDIA) due to falling mining revenues, high competition, and expensive rates. Companies such as Bitdeer and MARA Holdings are liquidating cryptocurrency reserves to finance artificial intelligence infrastructure, aiming for more stable profits. $TAO $RENDER

MARA remains a long-term holder of the first cryptocurrency. The company holds 53,822 BTC worth $3.7 billion. This is the largest figure among public miners.

At the same time, MARA is diversifying its business. Last month, the company acquired a 64% stake in the French provider of computing infrastructure and blockchain services, Exaion.

Let us remind you that in February, MARA reported losses of $1.7 billion and also stated its intention to shift focus to artificial intelligence.
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IREN has completely abandoned cryptocurrency reserves. The company's Bitcoin balance has been zeroed out to focus on HPC computing.

Core Scientific intends to sell the bulk of its coins by the end of the first quarter to direct $170 million towards the development of AI infrastructure. The balance has fallen from a historical maximum of 9618 to 630 BTC.

Riot Platforms has realized bitcoins worth $200 million to finance the acquisition deal of Rockdale. Reserves decreased from 19,368 to 18,005 BTC. In 2025, the company recorded a record revenue of $647.4 million, citing the main reason for success as a strategic pivot towards AI.

Cipher Digital (formerly Cipher Mining) called 2025 a transitional year. The firm sold assets worth $40 million, reducing reserves to 1500 BTC.

Hut 8 announced that the first cryptocurrency is no longer a long-term focus for the company. The asset share on the balance (currently 13,696 BTC) will gradually decrease.

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How public companies are changing their profile

In February, Bitfarms CEO Ben Ganyon stated:

"We are no longer a bitcoin company. We are the owner and developer of data centers for artificial intelligence and high-performance computing (HPC) in North America." The company is re-registering in the state of Delaware and will change its name to Keel Infrastructure. Reserves have decreased from a peak of 3301 to 1827 BTC.

Bitdeer has realized all accumulated coins (about 943.1 BTC) to accelerate the transition to AI. The miner is launching NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 systems in Malaysia and retrofitting several sites in the USA and Europe.

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The decline in income has forced bitcoin miners to exchange crypto reserves for AI infrastructure

Miners have ready-made data centers. They are repurposing complexes for computations for neural networks. This business requires significant investments but appears to be more profitable. A large-scale revision of strategies is confirmed by the actions of the largest public companies.$TAO $RENDER

The largest capacity miner Bitdeer has completely liquidated its bitcoin assets. Core Scientific announced that it is selling all bitcoins and restructuring towards AI. CleanSpark and Riot Platforms made personnel changes in the top management to accelerate the transition to working with the AI sector. Cango sold 60% of its bitcoins.
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The AI boom has led to a "silent" liquidation of bitcoin reserves by miners. Who sold
Switching from cryptocurrency mining to AI-related computing is not an attempt to survive, but a conscious shift to a more profitable business.

The transition of large mining companies from bitcoin mining to maintaining infrastructure for artificial intelligence is not an attempt to survive, but a conscious shift in the business model to a more profitable one, experts surveyed by Bloomberg believe. The publication notes that among miners who collectively own bitcoins worth more than $8 billion, there are "silent," but accelerating sales of cryptocurrency.

MARA, the second largest holder of bitcoins after Michael Saylor's Strategy, is revising its strategy to consider the possibility of selling part of its reserves worth $4 billion. In early November 2025, transfers of bitcoins worth at least $230 million from known company wallets to exchanges were already recorded. In February — another $87 million. The company has also signed a large agreement to create infrastructure for AI, including the transformation of existing locations.
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Japan introduced a rationing system for the sale of graphics cards due to shortages. In the largest stores in Tokyo, customers are allowed to purchase no more than one GPU per person — restrictions apply to GeForce and Radeon, the supplies of which are currently being disrupted. $TAO $RENDER

· Leaders of the week: Over the last 7 days, Cardano (ADA) increased by ~7%, Solana (SOL) by ~5.5%, and Ethereum (ETH) by nearly 5%.
· Explosive growth on news:
· CFG: Increased by 50% in a day after listing on the exchange.
· GWEI: Gained 25% after being added to Bithumb.
· Meme token GROK: Soared more than 520% in a day due to a tweet from Elon Musk.

· AI + Crypto: The market for AI agents continues to experience explosive growth. The sector's capitalization reached $115.5 billion, doubling in two years. Vitalik Buterin presented a development plan for Ethereum (Strawmap) that will accelerate the network for artificial intelligence needs.
· Stablecoins and payments: Meta (Facebook, Instagram) is preparing to integrate stablecoins into its payment applications, which could become a major event in 2026 for mass adoption. The MetaMask card with cashback up to 3% has already been launched in the USA.$TAO $RENDER

Money is going into "physics". Gold has broken $5,200, silver +7.6%. This is a classic flight to real assets. Dotcoms 2.0: the AI bubble is bursting, capital is seeking solid ground.

The market is in a "risk-off" phase: capital is exiting BTC/ETH without entering old-school altcoins.

🤔 So what is it?

This is not death. This is a transition from quantity to quality. Thousands of useless tokens will die, just as thousands of internet companies with the "e-" prefix once did. But the technology of distributed ledger will become as familiar a layer of the global financial system as the internet has become for communications.

Bitcoin is likely to survive and strengthen as "digital gold." Ethereum and other platforms will fight for the title of "world computer." However, thousands of second and third tier projects will indeed disappear forever.

This is similar to your thought that the industry has "worked itself out" as a hype. It has worked itself out in the form we have known it for the last 5 years. Now, a completely different, more boring, but also more reliable game begins.

🏛️ The Death of the "Casino" and the Birth of "Infrastructure"

What we are witnessing now is not the death of technology, but the death of an old model based on circular speculation and "casino economics," where profitability was created through internal dilution rather than external value.

The industry is entering a phase that 30 leading institutions (from a16z to BlackRock) call the "industrialization phase." This means that retail speculators are being replaced by institutional investors who need stability and predictability, not "x's."

📉 "Dot-com Bubble" vs "Crypto Winter 2026": What's the Difference?

You are absolutely right that there is a similarity: back then, the speculation bubble also burst, hundreds of companies disappeared, and investors lost trillions. But there is also a key difference that defines the future.

Criterion Dot-com Bubble (2000) Crypto Winter (2026)
Cause of Collapse Speculation on everything, inflated expectations from new technologies without real business models. Speculation has been replaced by fear; the crisis is caused by macroeconomics (Federal Reserve rates), geopolitics, and capital outflow to "safe havens".
What is Happening Hundreds of internet companies went bankrupt. Thousands of zombie altcoins are disappearing ("great filtration").
Who Survived Giants with real business models survived (Amazon, eBay). Projects with real utility and income are surviving (infrastructure, RWA, BTC as an asset).
Main Conclusion Internet technology hasn't gone anywhere; it has become the foundation of a new economy. Blockchain technology is becoming the foundation for a new financial system ("industrialization").

So your phrase "death winter altcoins" is the perfect diagnosis of the current moment. It is a winter that will destroy weak projects, but may prepare the ground for new, healthier growth in the future (but not in 2026, rather towards the end of the decade).