Bitcoin mining stocks fell sharply on Wednesday as hotter-than-expected US inflation pressured technology and artificial-intelligence infrastructure companies across Wall Street. TeraWulf, Core Scientific, Cipher Mining and IREN each lost more than 12%, while the broader Nasdaq suffered its steepest one-day decline since July.
Tech-led selloff hits mining shares
The S&P 500 dropped 1.1%, marking its largest daily decline since July 29. The Nasdaq Composite fell 1.9%, its biggest one-day fall since July 23, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%.
Technology and data-center companies were among the main decliners. CoreWeave dropped 16%, Nebius fell 11% and Oracle lost 9%. According to Cointelegraph, 21 of the 23 companies in PRISM’s AI Data Center and Infrastructure Index ended lower, with the group recording an average decline of 7.46%.
Bitcoin miners were swept into the selloff, particularly because some of the companies have expanded beyond cryptocurrency mining into AI-related data-center infrastructure. TeraWulf declined 12.64%, Core Scientific fell 12.44%, Cipher Mining dropped 12.35% and IREN decreased 12.2%.
Riot Platforms, Bitdeer Technologies, MARA and CleanSpark also moved lower, although the source material does not provide their individual daily losses.
Why inflation mattered to AI infrastructure
US consumer prices increased 3.7% in September from a year earlier, above economists’ 3.6% expectation and well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target. Higher gasoline prices, attributed in the report to the war in the Middle East, contributed to the rise.
The inflation reading raised market expectations that the Federal Reserve could increase interest rates in October. The implied probability of an October hike briefly moved above 50% on Wednesday before falling back.
Higher rates can increase borrowing costs for companies that use debt to fund large construction and expansion projects. That exposure is especially relevant to AI infrastructure businesses, which are investing in data centers, and to bitcoin miners that have broadened their operations into similar facilities. The result was additional pressure on a group of stocks already vulnerable to changes in financing costs and technology-sector sentiment.
Fed official urges patience
The inflation data did not produce a uniform message from Federal Reserve officials. San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly said further rate increases would probably be needed to bring inflation under control, but indicated that policymakers did not need to act immediately in October.
“I don’t feel urgent that we have to decide with a limited set of information. I think we have the time that we need,” Daly told Reuters.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar market data at 21:18–21:19 on October 15, 2026, showed Bitcoin at $82,080.48, up 0.45% over 24 hours and 0.45% over seven days. Other tracked assets showed mixed performance:
- Compound was $22.4001, down 0.63% in 24 hours and 3.89% over seven days.
- Holo was $0.0003880, up 1.27% in 24 hours but down 5.15% over seven days.
- Walrus was $0.05163, down 13.95% in 24 hours but up 55.15% over seven days.
These figures describe asset prices and token performance, rather than the daily share-price moves of the publicly traded mining companies discussed above.
