Latest / Connecting the Dots / Bitcoin Miners Pivot, Europe Centralizes Crypto Power, and Tether Makes Big Moves

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Bitcoin Miners Pivot, Europe Centralizes Crypto Power, and Tether Makes Big Moves · Connecting the Dots

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  Today's tech news moves fast, but understanding
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  it shouldn't be hard. That's why Snarfl Solutions
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  Group brings you Connecting the Dots, where we
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  break down what's happening in tech and why it
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  matters to you. Now, let's dive in with your
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  hosts. Welcome back to Connecting the Dots. I'm
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  Alex. And I'm Morgan. We're from the Snarful
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  Solutions Group right here in Sacramento. It
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  is Friday, November 14th, 2025, and we're here
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  to help you untack what's happening in the world
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  of tech and finance. And before we get to the
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  big stories, a quick look outside our window.
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  Right, here in Sacramento, we're looking at chance
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  showers today, high of about 63 degrees. That
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  atmospheric river is still hanging around. It
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  is. It's bringing some pretty heavy rain and
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  snow up in the Sierra Nevada, anything above
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  7 ,000 feet. And that means potential flooding
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  down in Southern California is still a concern
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  through the weekend. OK, let's turn to the markets.
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  It felt like a really choppy day, kind of a mixed
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  bag at the close. Very mixed. The Dow Jones closed
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  down just a bit, about half percent, at 47 ,004
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  .15. That keeps it slightly in the red for the
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  week. But the S &P 500 actually had a better
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  day. It did, yeah. It managed to climb about
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  0 .36%, closing at 6 ,696 .05. But it's still
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  down over 1 % for the week. And Bitcoin, it's
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  been hovering near that big $100 ,000 mark, but
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  it seems to have taken a hit. A pretty big one.
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  The volatility is definitely back. It closed
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  at $96 ,404 .46, which is down 3 .30 % in just
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  the last 24 hours. Wow. And that puts it down
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  over 9 % for the week. Oh. And that drop is a
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  really important piece of context for our first
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  big story. It certainly is. But before we get
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  there, we want to thank our sponsor, Old Glory.
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  purchase. Just go to OldGlory .com. OK, let's
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  get into it. It is time for our morning star,
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  the top three tech stories you need to know about
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  today. And the first one is... It's a really
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  big deal. It signals a fundamental shift in the
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  US crypto business. So landmark announcement,
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  really. The publicly traded Bitcoin miner Bitfarms,
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  that's ticker BITF, is getting out of Bitcoin
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  mining completely. Completely. 100%. They're
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  pivoting their entire business over to AI infrastructure
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  and high performance computing. They're the first
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  major miner to announce a total exit. That's
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  just, I mean, Bitcoin is trading at $96 ,000
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  a coin and they're walking away. What is happening?
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  Why? It all comes down to the money. The financials
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  are really forcing their hand here. Okay. Their
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  Q3 earnings just came out. They posted a net
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  loss of $46 million. Wow, $46 million. And that's
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  double the $24 million loss they had this time
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  last year. On top of that, their revenue missed
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  what analysts were expecting by more than 16%.
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  So the business just isn't working for them anymore?
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  Not in the U .S. It isn't. The cost of energy,
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  the mining difficulty, it's all eating away at
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  any profit they might have made. So they're swapping
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  one power -hungry business for another, moving
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  into what they call GPU -a -service, or GAS.
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  Is this happening overnight? No. It's a gradual
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  wind -down of their Bitcoin operations through
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  2026 and into 2027. But their CEO, Ben Gagnon,
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  made this absolutely stunning comparison about
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  the potential here. This is the part that really
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  got my attention. Tell everyone what he said.
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  Okay, so he pointed to just one of their sites,
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  their 18 megawatt facility in Washington state.
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  Now, to be clear, that's less than 1 % of their
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  entire company portfolio. Right, a tiny fraction.
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  And he said that converting just that one site
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  to run, you know, liquid -cooled NVIDIA GB300
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  chips for AI... could generate more net operating
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  income than their entire history of Bitcoin mining
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  combined. That is insane. Let that sink in. One
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  percent of their infrastructure pointed at AI
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  is potentially worth more than everything they've
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  ever done mining Bitcoin. It just shows you the
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  astronomical demand and frankly the margins available
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  for AI compute right now. So what did the market
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  think of this brilliant pivot? Well the market
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  hated it. at least in the short term. The stock,
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  BITF, dropped 18 % on the news. It's down 51
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  % in the past month. So what's the real story
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  here for you, for our listener? It means that
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  Bitcoin mining in high -cost places like the
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  U .S. is becoming a really tough business. The
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  operations are moving to places with cheaper
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  energy, like the Middle East or Russia. And here,
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  that energy infrastructure is getting repurposed
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  for the AI gold rush. It's a huge shift. OK,
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  from commercial reality to regulatory reality.
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  Let's head over to Europe, where they are wrestling
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  with how to police this borderless world of crypto.
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  Exactly. The European Commission has a new proposal
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  on the table, and it's a big one. They want to
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  centralize a lot of the crypto oversight and
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  give that power to ESMA, the European Securities
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  and Markets Authority. So, sort of like creating
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  their own version of the SEC in the US, but for
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  all of Europe. That's the goal. Right now, the
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  system is really fragmented. Because of that
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  MICA framework, right? Right. MICA introduced
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  this concept called passporting. Basically, if
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  a crypto company gets a license in any one EU
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  country, they can then operate across the entire
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  block of 27 nations. Ah, okay, so I can see the
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  problem. It creates a regulatory race to the
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  bottom. You just find the easiest place to get
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  a license and then set up shop everywhere. You
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  nailed it. And we've seen it happen. You have
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  firms like Robinhood getting a license in Lithuania,
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  or OKX in Malta, and then they're free to operate
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  in the huge markets like France and Germany.
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  And I'm guessing France and Germany aren't too
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  thrilled about that. Not at all. They, along
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  with Italy and Austria, are the ones pushing
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  for ESME to get direct control over the large
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  cross -border exchanges. They're worried about
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  inconsistent standards, security risks, money
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  laundering. You know all the big concerns, but
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  when you centralize power like that. There's
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  always a risk Isn't there a trade -off there
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  is some in the industry are worried that a single
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  centralized regulator might be less nimble that
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  it might create legal confusion Or that you lose
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  that local on -the -ground expertise that national
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  regulators have so the proposal still has to
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  get through the European Parliament It does but
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  what this really shows is how the world's major
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  economies are all grappling with the same fundamental
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  problem How do you regulate a global digital
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  financial system without stifling it? A question
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  nobody seems to have a perfect answer for yet.
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  Okay, for our third story, we're shifting focus
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  from regulation back to the giants of the industry,
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  specifically Tether. Yes, Tether, the company
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  behind the USDT stablecoin. They're making some
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  very aggressive, very deliberate moves into the
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  world of traditional finance. Their CEO, Paolo
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  Arduino, talked about a dramatic expansion in
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  lending, but not to other crypto companies. No,
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  not at all. They're expanding lending to commodities
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  traders. Commodities, you mean like... Oil and
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  wheat exactly oil cotton wheat agricultural products
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  the basic building blocks the global economy
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  tether has already loaned out about one point
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  five billion dollars to that sector using both
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  regular dollars and their own stable coin us
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  dt that's right and for anyone listening we really
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  need to understand the scale of tether here because
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  a billion and a half dollars is believe it or
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  not a drop in the bucket for them. It really
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  is. I mean, this is a company that holds $135
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  billion in US treasuries. Which makes them the
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  17th largest holder of US debt in the world.
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  They hold more than South Korea, more than Germany.
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  It's staggering. And the CEO expects them to
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  blow past Brazil's $200 billion holding soon.
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  So you have this crypto native company that is
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  one of the biggest creditors to the US government.
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  And now it's using that massive capital base
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  to finance global trade in things like food and
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  energy. The lines are getting very, very blurry
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  between crypto and, you know, traditional bank.
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  They're being erased. Now, to be fair, they're
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  still a pretty small player compared to the big
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  banks and commodity lending. But their ambition
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  is huge. Speaking of ambition, there is that
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  fun little detail about their other interests.
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  Oh, right. The CEO has openly said they're very
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  interested in buying the Italian soccer club,
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  Juventus. And they're already the second largest
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  shareholder, I read. They are. So you have a
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  stablecoin giant trying to finance wheat farmers
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  on one hand and buy a legendary sports team on
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  the other. It really just shows you how deeply
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  this capital is embedding itself into the mainstream
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  world. You really can't make this stuff up. Nope.
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  OK, that wraps up our Morningstar report. But
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  before we recap, we also want to thank our other
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  entire order. Find them at scony .com. All right,
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  let's bring it all home. What are the three big
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  takeaways for everyone listening today? I think
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  the big theme is crypto growing up and being
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  forced to integrate with the real world. First,
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  the Bitfarm story shows the hard economic truth
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  that in the US right now, AI is just a much more
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  profitable business than Bitcoin mining. OK,
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  one. What's two? Second, the EU's move to give
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  ESMA more power shows how regulators everywhere
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  are struggling to create a unified rulebook for
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  a borderless industry. And finally, Tether. Tether's
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  move into commodity lacking shows that this massive
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  pool of crypto capital is no longer staying in
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  its own lane. It's flowing directly into the
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  core plumbing of the global economy. Excellent
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  summary. A lot to think about heading into the
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  weekend. We're here to help at Snarfull, so reach
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  out on our website if you have any more questions.
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  That's a wrap on today's top stories. Remember,
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  tech doesn't have to be complicated, and we're
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  here to help connect the dots. If you've got
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  questions or want to learn more, visit us at
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  snarful .com. Thanks for listening and we'll
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  catch you next time.