Bitcoin Hashrate Drops Below 1,000 EH/s as Miners Shift Power to AI

Bitcoin network hashrate has fallen below 1,000 exahash per second for the first time since mid September. Data from Hashrate Index shows the seven day moving average at 993 EH/s after slipping under the level on Saturday. This marks a near 15% drop from the October 19 peak of 1,157 EH/s. The move lower comes after months of sideways action near record highs and signals a clear pullback in active mining power.

The drop stands out because it arrives during a period when mining conditions have eased. Lower hashrate usually follows falling prices or tighter margins, not improving conditions.

AI Pulls Power Away From Bitcoin Mining

StandardHash CEO Leon Lyu said the decline is driven by miners redirecting power toward AI compute services. In a post on Monday, Lyu said miners are chasing higher margins as returns from Bitcoin mining stay thin. 

Mining sites already have large power contracts and cooling systems, making it easy to shift machines away from SHA 256 hashing and into AI workloads.

TheMinerMag described 2025 as the harshest margin year for miners. Revenue dropped while debt rose, forcing operators to look for other income. AI and high performance computing offer steadier cash flow than block rewards and fees. As more miners move power off the network, total hashrate falls even if machines remain plugged in elsewhere.

Difficulty Falls but Hashrate Still Slips

The hashrate drop comes despite Bitcoin mining difficulty falling four times since November 12. Difficulty declined from 156 trillion to 146.5 trillion, lowering the work needed to mine a block. Under normal conditions, this would draw miners back and push hashrate higher.

Hashprice has also improved. Over the past month, returns rose from $37.15 to $40 per petahash per second per day. This signals better payouts for miners who stay active. Even so, the hashrate trend points lower, showing that improved mining terms are not enough to keep power on the network.

Lyu added that some hardware makers may be running surplus machines through indirect setups. He pointed to firms like Bitmain possibly deploying excess stock without clear reporting. If true, public hashrate data may not show the full picture. Still, the visible trend remains negative.