Shares of Hut 8, TeraWulf, and IREN declined sharply despite Hut 8 reporting a $19.6 billion backlog from Beacon Point Advisors, reflecting investor skepticism over execution timelines and power availability.

Friday’s selling in AI-pivoting Bitcoin (CRYPTO:BTC) miners tracked their 2026 gains almost perfectly, a pattern characteristic of profit-taking and position unwinding rather than a reassessment of corporate contracts or economics. Hut 8 (NASDAQ:HUT) stock fell 11% to $78.54 in Friday morning trading, marking the group’s steepest decline despite carrying the largest signed AI data center backlog among former miners. There was no same-day announcement driving the move. Meanwhile, TeraWulf (NASDAQ:WULF) slid 5% to $15.58, a more moderate drop mirroring its smaller year-to-date advance. IREN (NASDAQ:IREN) also declined, falling 3% to $41.20, reflecting the mildest loss consistent with its slimmer 2026 gain.

Ranking the three miners by 2026 performance and Friday’s loss yields an identical order. Through Thursday’s close, Hut 8 was up 93% year to date and saw the largest daily drop. TeraWulf had gained 43% year to date and posted a smaller decline, while IREN, up 13% year to date, experienced the shallowest pullback. At the same time, the Global X Data Center and Digital Infrastructure ETF (NASDAQ:DTCR) dipped just 0.6% to $28.30, moving barely relative to the miners within the broader theme. That gap tells the story: broad demand for AI data center capacity isn’t what traders are selling this morning.

That proportionality signals profit-taking, not a re-underwriting of long-duration contracts or unit economics. What is being unwound is the specific bet that former Bitcoin miners can convert scarce power and shell space into AI tenancy—a bet that repriced violently upward earlier this year. Full-chain options positioning remains bullish across the group, with Hut 8’s put-call ratio at 0.45, TeraWulf’s at 0.37, and IREN’s at 0.34. Traders sitting on sizable call exposure have every incentive to trim as the year’s gains compress.

Hut 8’s backlog is not new news, but it frames why the stock rallied so sharply and why it is giving back the most today. On May 6, Hut 8 commercialized the first phase of its 1-gigawatt Beacon Point AI data center campus in Texas, securing a 15-year, 352-megawatt IT lease with a base-term contract value of $9.8 billion. By July 20, the company fully commercialized the campus with a second 352-megawatt IT lease, raising the campus-level base-term contract value to $19.6 billion. Both milestones predate this trading session. During an August 4 call, Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot noted that “total contracted AI data center capacity across Beacon Point and River Bend is roughly 949 megawatts, representing approximately $26.6 billion of expected aggregate base-term contract value.” Initial data hall delivery is targeted for Q2 2027 at River Bend and Q3 2027 at Beacon Point, meaning none of that contracted revenue has yet hit the income statement.

The Global X ETF’s muted movement provides the clearest evidence that broader AI infrastructure demand is not being repriced today. While DTCR rose 35% year to date through Thursday’s close, participating in the thematic rally, its Friday decline was negligible compared to the miners. The fund’s portfolio leans toward established data center REITs and communications tower operators, with its top three positions each accounting for more than 9% of net assets. DTCR shares are holding up far better than the miners inside the theme. That divergence points to a rotation out of the highest-beta corner of the AI infrastructure trade rather than a sector-wide reassessment of demand (we profiled seven suppliers powering the buildout, from power to cooling, in a free report).

For Hut 8 shareholders, the central question is whether Beacon Point’s contracted revenue will begin converting into reported results. The backlog is signed and dated, but the cash has not yet appeared in financial statements. Reported Q2 2026 revenue of $74.93 million still reflects mostly compute activity, not the AI lease stream anchoring the equity story. Investors sizing exposure to this group may want to keep positions moderate given how proportional Friday’s selling is to prior gains. Hut 8 stock dropping 11% against a 0.6% move in DTCR shares underscores the single-stock risk in this pocket. A cautious weighting, paired with attention to the next Hut 8 quarterly report for the first Beacon Point revenue signals, remains the sensible stance.

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Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Hut 8 didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

Act now: the analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 AI stocks — and Hut 8 didn’t make the cut. Grab the names FREE today.

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