Bitcoin hashrate just dropped 4% in Q1 — the first quarterly decline in 6 years. That’s a big shift from the usual growth trend we’ve seen since 2020.

Why? Mining is no longer as profitable. With costs near $90K per BTC and prices around $67K, miners are losing money. Many are now pivoting to AI and high-performance computing for better returns.

This means less reinvestment into mining hardware and more bitcoin selling to fund the transition. Smaller miners may exit if prices stay weak, further slowing hashrate growth.

But there’s a silver lining: fewer big U.S. miners could mean a more decentralized, globally distributed network. That could actually strengthen Bitcoin long-term.

CoinShares still sees hashrate hitting 1.8 zettahash by year-end — but only if Bitcoin recovers toward $100K.

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