Bitcoin Mining Output Falls 47% as Hashrate Reclaims 1 ZH/s

Publicly traded Bitcoin miners are producing fewer Bitcoins as they shift towards artificial intelligence. A new report from CryptoQuant has shown that five of these Bitcoin mining companies produced 47% less BTC year-on-year.

The companies, which include IREN, Core Scientific, Bitfarms, TeraWulf, and Cipher, produced only 7,075 BTC between January 1 and October 19. This is a major drop from the 13,263 BTC they produced in the same period in 2025.

The decline is not entirely surprising, with these companies converting some of their sites into data centers to host high-performance AI computing. Bitfarms particularly shut down its Bitcoin mining in the US in an all-in pivot to AI in the country.

AI Pivot Leads to Biggest Hashrate Drawdown Since 2021

The shift to AI by several publicly traded Bitcoin miners was a major reason behind the sharp decline in hashrate this year. Hashrate, which measures the amount of computing capacity on the Bitcoin network, fell earlier this year.

According to CryptoQuant, the drawdown in hashrate this year was the deepest since 2021, when China banned Bitcoin mining. Hashrate, which peaked around 1,123 exahash per second (EH/s) in the seven-day moving average in October 2025, fell to around 850 EH/s by February 2026.

Analysts noted that it spent more than 242 days in 2026 at 10% below its peak, with 83 of those days more than 15% below.

This 30-day average hashrate, which peaked at 1,101 EH/s on November 11, 2025, also fell by 18.3% to 899 EH/s on August 6, 2026. During the 2022 bear market, hashrate bottomed at 10.3% below peak.

Hashrate At 8% Below Peak as Recovery Continues

However, a turnaround is already in sight with hashrate now at 1,004 EH/s, representing 8.8% below the peak. It has been rising for the past two months, gaining more than 11% from the low.

The rise in hashrate is fueled by more Bitcoin miners coming online. The publicly traded mining companies that are still focused on BTC have increased their production by more than 16% in the past year.

Hive has almost doubled its production from a year ago, while MARA, Riot, American Bitcoin, and CleanSpark have also increased production.

Still, all the new hashrate is not coming from the public miners. CryptoQuant noted that sovereign countries, as well as private and non-US miners, are also getting involved in Bitcoin mining.

Some miners, such as Bitdeer, are combining an AI pivot with mining expansion. However, even those who have stopped mining appear to be offloading their mining machines, potentially allowing this equipment to return online.

One factor that has also driven the resurgence in hashrate is Bitcoin prices. The rise of hashrate coincided with Bitcoin’s climb above $80,000 and the return of profitability.

The question now is whether the hashrate increase will last, especially as Bitcoin struggles to break above the $80,000 range. Mining difficulty is also back on the rise after weeks of decline, suggesting that production costs might increase.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency-related investments carry substantial volatility and potential financial losses. Readers should conduct independent research before making investment decisions.