Bitcoin Is Down 7 Percent This Year But Bitcoin Mining ETFs Are Up Over 50 Percent.
This Is The Real Crypto Story of 2026 Quick Read – iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) down 13% in 2026 while miners surge on post-halving leverage and AI infrastructure pivot. – Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (WGMI) up 50% year-to-date as efficient producers turn blockchain mining into data center operations. – Global X Blockchain ETF (BKCH) offers broader exposure beyond miners to exchanges, custodians, and AI hosting infrastructure companies. – The analyst who called NVIDIA in 2010 just named his top 10 stocks and Global X Funds Global X Blockchain ETF wasn’t one of them
Get them here FREE. Spot Bitcoin has spent 2026 grinding lower while the companies that mine it have ripped higher. iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (NASDAQ:IBIT), the largest spot Bitcoin ETF on the market, is down roughly 13% year to date, tracking Bitcoin itself almost tick for tick as the coin has slid from around $87,000 at year end to roughly $75,800. Meanwhile, Valkyrie Bitcoin Miners ETF (NASDAQ:WGMI) is up over 50% in the same window, and Global X Blockchain ETF (NASDAQ:BKCH) is up close to 38%.
That gap is the real crypto story of 2026. When the underlying commodity is weak but the producers of that commodity are screaming higher, something structural is happening underneath the spot price. For Bitcoin, that something is post-halving economics colliding with a hash rate arms race and an AI infrastructure pivot that has rerated mining companies as something closer to data center operators than levered crypto bets.