CleanSpark, Inc. (Nasdaq: CLSK) stock was sharply lower in U.S. trading on Monday, December 15, 2025, sliding roughly 15% to around $11.87 after opening near $13.71 and touching an intraday low near $11.71. Trading volume was heavy (roughly 30.7 million shares), underscoring how quickly sentiment can swing in bitcoin miner equities when crypto prices wobble.
Early market briefs flagged CleanSpark among the day’s notable decliners, with mid-cap “movers” lists showing CLSK down in the mid-teens alongside other crypto-linked and mining names. [1]
Why CleanSpark stock is down today: crypto volatility meets “risk-off” markets
The most straightforward driver is the one CleanSpark can’t control: bitcoin’s price. Bitcoin fell back below key psychological levels in recent sessions as broader risk appetite cooled—pressured by renewed investor anxiety over whether the AI investment boom is translating into profits fast enough. Reuters tied the latest crypto weakness to a risk-off turn that followed fresh worries about AI returns and the knock-on effect on technology stocks. [2]
Bitcoin’s choppiness late in 2025 has mattered more than usual for miner stocks because crypto has increasingly traded like a “risk asset,” moving more in step with equities and macro sentiment than in past cycles. Reuters has highlighted the strengthening correlation between bitcoin and major equity benchmarks this year, especially amid volatility tied to AI-related valuations and rate expectations. [3]
For investors, the key takeaway is mechanical: CleanSpark’s revenue, margins, and balance sheet optics are highly sensitive to bitcoin’s price and the mining “economics stack” (network difficulty, energy costs, uptime). That creates days like today—big moves that look “company-specific” on a chart, even when the catalyst is mostly macro.
CleanSpark’s business in one paragraph: a bitcoin miner with an “AI power option”
CleanSpark is primarily a bitcoin mining operator that owns and runs data center infrastructure across multiple U.S. states. Reuters’ company description emphasizes its owned/operated data centers and contracted power footprint and notes the company’s mining fleet and hashrate capability (figures that can lag company updates as operations scale). [4]
What’s changed in the narrative over the last quarter is that CleanSpark (like several peers) is pitching itself as more than a miner: a power-and-data-center platform that could allocate part of its energized capacity to high-performance computing (HPC) / AI workloads if the economics are attractive.
That “AI pivot” is central to many current analyst models—and it’s a major reason price targets remain well above today’s trading level (more on that below).
The latest fundamentals: record FY2025 results and a growing bitcoin treasury
CleanSpark’s most recent major financial update was its FY2025 results (fiscal year ended September 30, 2025). In its release, the company reported:
- Revenue of $766.3 million, up 102% year over year
- Net income of $364.5 million (or $1.25 per basic share)
- Adjusted EBITDA of $823.4 million [5]
Management framed FY2025 as a year of operating leverage, pointing to scaling hashrate and a preference for “accretive capital market tools,” including convertible debt and bitcoin-backed revolvers rather than heavier at-the-market issuance. [6]
Operationally, the company’s November 2025 mining update (published December 3, 2025) provided a more current snapshot of scale:
- 587 bitcoin produced in November (unaudited)
- 50 EH/s operational hashrate (with 47.4 EH/s average operating hashrate)
- 13,054 BTC in total holdings as of Nov. 30 (with a portion posted as collateral/receivable)
- 1.45 GW under contract and 808 MW utilized (as defined by the company) [7]
Those numbers matter because, for miners, investors are effectively underwriting two things at once:
- near-term mining cash generation, and
- the “strategic option value” of owned power, land, and energized infrastructure—especially if AI/HPC tenants are willing to pay premium rates.
Capital strategy: the $1.15B zero-coupon convertible notes and share repurchase
One of the most consequential recent events for CleanSpark shareholders was the company’s $1.15 billion offering of 0.00% Convertible Senior Notes due 2032 (private offering to qualified institutional buyers). The company announced upsizing/pricing on November 10, 2025, including a stated plan to use about $460 million of proceeds to repurchase common stock from offering investors. [8]
On November 13, 2025, CleanSpark announced it had completed the offering and repurchased 30.6 million shares (about 10.9% of shares then outstanding) for approximately $460 million, which it said would be removed from the outstanding share count. Net proceeds were described as about $1.13 billion, with remaining funds earmarked for expanding the power/land portfolio, developing data center infrastructure, repaying bitcoin-backed credit balances, and general corporate purposes. [9]
The structure is a double-edged sword for equity:
- Pro: zero-coupon debt lowers cash interest burden; buyback can be supportive.
- Con: convertibles can create perceived “conversion overhang,” and the stock can become more sensitive to hedging/technical flows around the instrument.
Analyst forecasts: price targets remain high, but bitcoin assumptions do the heavy lifting
Despite today’s sell-off, Street price targets (as compiled by major aggregators) still imply substantial upside—reflecting both the company’s scale and the AI/HPC “option value” thesis.
Two widely followed consensus snapshots today show broadly bullish positioning:
- MarketBeat: consensus rating “Moderate Buy” with an average $23.20 price target (low $14, high $30) based on 12 analyst ratings. [10]
- StockAnalysis: consensus rating “Strong Buy” with an average $23.83 price target (low $14, high $30) from 10 analysts. [11]
Those are not identical because services differ in which firms they include and how they time-stamp updates—but directionally, they tell the same story: analysts are still leaning bullish even after recent volatility.
What analysts are emphasizing: profitability today, AI/HPC optionality tomorrow
Recent analyst notes have trimmed some targets—often explicitly because of bitcoin’s pullback—without abandoning the longer-term thesis:
- Cantor Fitzgerald lowered its price target to $21 (from $23) while maintaining an Overweight rating, citing bitcoin’s decline but calling CleanSpark’s valuation attractive and highlighting profitability plus AI/HPC potential not fully priced in. [12]
- H.C. Wainwright lowered its target to $27 (from $30) and reiterated a Buy, pointing to the potential to repurpose the 250 MW Sandersville, Georgia site from bitcoin mining to HPC/AI workloads and arguing the site could support a large-scale tenant (with the note also floating a >$400M annual revenue possibility in a colocation scenario). [13]
Separately, JPMorgan’s miner-sector positioning has been part of the broader narrative around miners becoming data center operators, including upgrades and target adjustments tied to HPC momentum across the group. [14]
Revenue and EPS expectations: growth projected, but not in a straight line
StockAnalysis’ compiled forecasts imply revenue growth continuing from FY2025 levels, with revenue estimates around $933.25M for the current year and $1.10B next year, while EPS projections show more variability (a reminder that miner earnings are notoriously sensitive to bitcoin’s price and network conditions). [15]
The bigger macro “forecast” hanging over CLSK: where bitcoin ends 2025
Because miner equities are leveraged to bitcoin, the most important forecast CleanSpark investors end up caring about is often the one not written about CleanSpark.
Reuters reported that Standard Chartered cut its year-end 2025 bitcoin expectation, lowering a previously higher target down to $100,000 and attributing the shift to weaker momentum and changing demand dynamics. [16]
MarketWatch similarly reported the bank halved its year-end 2025 target (to $100,000), citing softened buying activity and ETF flow dynamics. [17]
Whether those calls prove right or wrong, the market implication is clear: when “big forecast” narratives reset, miners often move more violently than bitcoin itself.
What to watch next for CleanSpark stock (CLSK)
No crystal ball, just the practical catalyst list traders tend to obsess over:
Bitcoin direction and liquidity. CleanSpark’s beta works both ways; sharp bitcoin rebounds can re-rate miners quickly, and sharp dips can compress valuations just as fast. Reuters’ recent reporting underscores how crypto has been reacting to equity-style risk sentiment, especially around AI narratives and rates. [18]
Next operational update. The company’s monthly mining updates (like the November report) are key checkpoints for hashrate, efficiency, bitcoin production, and treasury strategy. [19]
Progress on AI/HPC monetization. Analysts are explicitly modeling upside from leasing energized capacity to HPC/AI tenants (and, in some cases, imagining very large revenue potential). Concrete contracts, capex plans, and timelines will matter more than “pivot” language. [20]
Capital allocation after the convertible deal. The $1.15B convertible notes and the associated share repurchase were unusually large and shareholder-visible. Investors will be watching how remaining proceeds translate into additional power, land, and data center buildout. [21]
Bottom line
CleanSpark stock’s December 15, 2025 drop looks less like a surprise company-specific bombshell and more like the familiar cocktail of (1) bitcoin weakness, (2) risk-off macro, and (3) high-beta miner equity mechanics. [22]
At the same time, CleanSpark isn’t just “a ticker that follows bitcoin” anymore in the way analysts talk about it. The company is reporting scaled operations, a sizable bitcoin treasury, and a capital plan explicitly aimed at expanding power/data center infrastructure—fueling a consensus that still sits meaningfully above today’s price, even after multiple target trims. [23]
References
1. www.investing.com, 2. www.reuters.com, 3. www.reuters.com, 4. www.reuters.com, 5. investors.cleanspark.com, 6. investors.cleanspark.com, 7. investors.cleanspark.com, 8. investors.cleanspark.com, 9. investors.cleanspark.com, 10. www.marketbeat.com, 11. stockanalysis.com, 12. www.investing.com, 13. in.investing.com, 14. www.theblock.co, 15. stockanalysis.com, 16. www.reuters.com, 17. www.marketwatch.com, 18. www.reuters.com, 19. investors.cleanspark.com, 20. in.investing.com, 21. investors.cleanspark.com, 22. www.reuters.com, 23. investors.cleanspark.com
