Bitcoin miners plunge up to 13% in Wall Street’s worst selloff since July

Bitcoin miners suffered a 13% plunge amid Wall Street's worst selloff since July, as soaring inflation impacted AI infrastructure companies. TeraWulf, Core Scientific, Cipher Mining, and IREN each lost over 12% of their value, citing heightened inflation, which adversely affected technology and AI infrastructure stocks. The S&P 500 plummeted 1.1%, the Nasdaq Composite declined 1.9% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.1%, marking the sharpest one-day drop since July. Key tech decliners were CoreWeave (-16%), Nebius (-11%) and Oracle (-9%).

Among the 23 AI infrastructure stocks monitored by PRISM's AI Data Center and Infrastructure Index, 21 fell on Wednesday, with an average loss of 7.46%. Cryptocurrency miners, some of which have ventured into AI infrastructure, also experienced losses. TeraWulf fell 12.64%, Core Scientific (-12.44%), Cipher Mining (-12.35%) and IREN (-12.2%) suffered significant declines. Other affected entities included Riot Platforms, Bitdeer Technologies, MARA and CleanSpark.

Elevated interest rates could elevate borrowing costs for AI infrastructure firms, many of which heavily rely on debt for data center expansion. US consumer prices surged 3.7% in September, surpassing expectations of 3.6% and exceeding the Federal Reserve's 2% objective, primarily due to higher gasoline costs stemming from the Middle East conflict. The inflation data spurred increased expectations of a Federal Reserve interest-rate hike in October.

The probability of further rate hikes reached over 50% briefly before cooling. Nevertheless, San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly, speaking to Reuters, indicated that while additional rate increases might be necessary to curb inflation, there was no urgency to act in the current month. Daly expressed a willingness to wait for more information before making a decision.