In the past nine months, the hash rate of publicly traded Bitcoin miners, excluding Bitdeer, has decreased by 21.2%, according to estimates from MinerWeekly.

The total hash rate fell from 368.3 EH/s in the fourth quarter of 2025 to 319.0 EH/s in the second quarter of 2026.

Mining companies are scaling back their operations to transition to AI and high-performance computing (HPC) infrastructure, analysts from the publication noted.

Source: MinerWeekly.

In contrast, the overall Bitcoin network's hash rate experienced a milder decline. The average quarterly hash rate was 1,071 EH/s in the fourth quarter of 2025, 993 EH/s in the first quarter of 2026, and 957 EH/s in the second quarter.

This resulted in an overall decrease of only 10.6%, with Bitdeer being a significant outlier.

MinerWeekly highlighted that some companies are reducing their mining efforts faster than others can increase theirs.

Conversely, Bitdeer has managed to offset losses, with its realized hash rate increasing by 44% to 63 EH/s.

Reasons for the Decline

The authors attribute this shift to rising revenues from colocation and AI computing infrastructure. Core Scientific reported $136.7 million from additional placements in the second quarter, compared to $27.5 million from Bitcoin mining.

TeraWulf's revenue from HPC leasing reached $31.9 million (71% of its total), while Bitcoin mining brought in $12.8 million.

Other miners reported weaker transitions. Riot Platforms reported $23.2 million in revenue from data centers against $113.7 million from mining. Bitdeer earned $14 million from cloud AI services and $197.1 million from mining-related activities.

Hut 8 and MARA reported lower contributions from computing services, while Cipher and Keel Infrastructure have yet to record HPC revenue.

Experts characterized the current downturn as a result of a challenging mining economy and competition for capital and electricity from AI workloads.

MinerWeekly reminded readers that after the mining ban in China in June 2021, the network's hash rate briefly dropped to 57.5 EH/s but nearly recovered by December.

Additionally, in August 2026, Bitcoin miners' revenue from fees fell to a ten-year low.