Bitcoin Hash Rate Slips Below 1 ZH/s as Miners Face Growing Profitability Pressure
Bitcoin (BTC) mining is dealing with renewed pressure as the hash fee dropped under a vital threshold not seen since late 2025. One knowledgeable believes that AI demand and manufacturer-led enlargement are reshaping community participation.
CommonplaceHash CEO and founder Leon Lyu warned of a significant change unfolding within the Bitcoin mining panorama after the community’s seven-day common hash fee fell under 1 ZH/s for the primary time since September final yr.
Miners Retreat
In a publish on X, Lyu stated that the decline signifies mounting stress on miner profitability, whereas a unfavorable issue adjustment of roughly 4.34% is predicted in roughly three days. He attributed the drop to a number of structural components, together with giant mining corporations reallocating energy capability away from Bitcoin mining towards synthetic intelligence compute companies in pursuit of upper margins.
Lyu additionally highlighted the rising affect of mining {hardware} producers, as he famous that Bitdeer is aggressively deploying its personal proprietary rigs and is gearing as much as grow to be the biggest North American miner by hash fee.
Additionally, he mentioned Bitmain seems to be increasing its personal mining footprint by secondary channels and partnerships, even as the general community hash fee developments decrease.
Lyu’s feedback come at a time when the competitors for vitality has intensified between BTC miners and synthetic intelligence information facilities. In latest years, a number of publicly listed mining corporations have disclosed plans to repurpose or co-locate mining infrastructure for high-performance computing and AI workloads.
At the identical time, grid operators and regulators within the US and Europe have flagged rising energy demand from AI information facilities, which frequently safe long-term electrical energy contracts. Industry stories have proven that AI amenities sometimes generate significantly larger income per megawatt than Bitcoin mining, which has elevated stress on miners during times of low hashprice. This pattern has accelerated energy reallocation selections throughout energy-constrained areas.
BTC Mining’s Toughest Year
These developments comply with a tough yr for Bitcoin miners. In December, TheMinerMag observed that the BTC mining business faced certainly one of its hardest durations final yr. The publication mentioned miners had been coping with the “harshest” revenue margins within the business’s 15-year historical past. In 2025, even giant, publicly listed corporations struggled to cowl prices. Mining income fell sharply as hashprice, which measures earnings from computing energy, dropped from about $55 per unit to round $35.
The report described this degree as a long-term low slightly than a short-term decline. The state of affairs worsened after BTC’s value fell from its document high of almost $126,000 in October, which put additional stress on already-strained mining operations.
The publish (*1*) appeared first on CryptoPotato.
