By Elena Vasquez

Four listed Bitcoin miners — TeraWulf, Core Scientific, Cipher Mining and IREN — each fell more than 12% on Wednesday, as hotter-than-expected US inflation data drove Wall Street's sharpest selloff since July. The declines were not crypto-specific. They tracked a broad rout in technology and AI infrastructure equities.

TeraWulf lost 12.64% over the session, according to market data. Core Scientific fell 12.44%, Cipher Mining 12.35% and IREN 12.2%. Riot Platforms, Bitdeer Technologies, MARA and CleanSpark also declined.

How broad was the selloff?

The S&P 500 fell 1.1%, its largest one-day drop since July 29. The Nasdaq Composite lost 1.9%, its worst single session since July 23. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.1%.

The AI infrastructure complex absorbed heavier losses. Data center operator CoreWeave fell 16%, AI infrastructure provider Nebius lost 11%, and Oracle dropped 9%. Of the 23 stocks in PRISM's AI Data Center and Infrastructure Index, 21 closed lower, with an average decline of 7.46% — a figure that, spread across the index, implies roughly three-quarters of a percentage point erased from the sector's value in one trading day.

The miners' outsized declines reflect their growing exposure to that sector. Several of the largest operators, including TeraWulf and Core Scientific, have expanded into AI and data center hosting, which ties their equity performance to the same interest-rate sensitivity now weighing on AI infrastructure names.

The mechanism matters more than the ticker moves. Higher interest rates raise borrowing costs for AI infrastructure companies, many of which finance data center expansion heavily with debt. For miners pivoting toward hosting contracts, that cost of capital now sits at the center of their expansion math.

What drove the inflation surprise?

US consumer prices rose 3.7% in September from a year earlier, exceeding economist expectations of 3.6% and sitting well above the Federal Reserve's 2% target. Higher gasoline prices linked to the Middle East conflict carried much of the blame.

The report sharpened expectations of another Federal Reserve rate hike in October. Implied probability of a hike briefly exceeded 50% on Wednesday before retreating, according to rate-market pricing.

San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly offered a counterweight. She told Reuters that further hikes were likely needed to tame inflation, but that the committee did not need to rush a decision this month.

"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 said.

What is not yet said — and what to watch

Notably absent from Wednesday's commentary was any commitment on timing. Daly's remarks leave the door open to inaction in October while preserving the option of a hike later; markets pricing a coin-flip probability should expect volatility in either direction.

For the miners, the immediate question is financing. If rates stay elevated, debt-funded data center buildouts become more expensive precisely as the sector's equity valuations compress. Companies that have hedged or pre-funded expansion are better positioned than those still reliant on capital markets.

The takeaway in plain words: the miners fell as leveraged tech proxies, not as crypto assets, and the next inflation print will likely set the pace again.

Investors' next concrete checkpoint is the Federal Reserve's October meeting, where the futures market's still-unsettled pricing will be resolved one way or the other.