Bitcoin's Hashrate Is Down More Than 20% as Miners Turn to AI

Bitcoin's mining power has been falling for most of a year, and the money that once bought machines is going into artificial-intelligence data centres instead. Rapha Zagury, chief executive of Twenty One Capital, told an audience at Bitcoin Asia in Hong Kong on 28 August that the network is in its first hashrate bear market. Hashrate is the total computing power securing bitcoin. Four accounts of his remarks published on Wednesday agree on the direction and disagree on nearly every number attached to it. The peak, the depth of the fall and its length are each written two ways.

Four accounts, four sets of figures

crypto.news, Blockonomi and The Cryptonomist all put the peak at nearly 1.3 zettahashes per second in late 2025, which is 1,300 exahashes. CryptoSlate puts it at 1,151.6 EH/s in October 2025, measured on a seven-day average. That is a gap of roughly 150 EH/s. The fall from that peak reads as 20.6% in CryptoSlate's count on 31 August, and as 22% to 24% in the other three. They do not reconcile, and none of the four explains why.

Where the hashrate sits now is written two ways as well. crypto.news cites CoinWarz at about 829 EH/s on Wednesday. CryptoSlate has the seven-day average at about 914 EH/s on 31 August, up 3.3% on the week. A daily estimate and a weekly average are not the same measure. An 85 EH/s spread two days apart is still wide, and neither outlet accounts for it. Difficulty runs steadier: crypto.news has it down 19.9% from its November peak by late July, CryptoSlate 18.3% at the trough, the deepest drawdown since 2021.

Why this decline is different

Zagury's argument is that the machines are not relocating. They are being repurposed.

"If you look at the public mining companies out there, there really isn't anybody staying the course to mine Bitcoin at scale," Zagury said.

What the four outlets put behind that is revenue. TeraWulf booked $21 million of AI and high-performance computing revenue in the first quarter of 2026, ahead of its bitcoin mining revenue for the first time. Cipher took a $200 million credit facility to fund long-term AI data-centre contracts. The two businesses want the same inputs: power connections, cooling, land and capital. IREN's cloud revenue passed its mining revenue in August, and MARA and CleanSpark posted a combined $851M quarterly loss while shifting capital the same way. All four names still mine at scale, and so does Bitdeer.

How long it has run

Duration is the most contested figure of the set. crypto.news and The Cryptonomist say the downward trend had run roughly 287 days as of late July. CryptoSlate counts 316 consecutive days with the seven-day average below its record, calling it the longest stretch in a decade against a previous maximum of 252 days. Those are different series counted to different end dates. The 316-day figure stands single-sourced, and neither number is confirmed by the other camp.

"This has been the longest period that we've seen from an all-time high until recovery," Zagury said. He also made the case that a thinner field suits whoever stays, since the block reward is then split among fewer machines. That is an argument about share, not about profit.

What the price is not doing

Hashrate usually tracks price. CryptoSlate reports that it did not this summer: bitcoin rose 34.9% between late June and late August, above $81,000, while hashrate fell 10.1%. It calls that only the second such divergence since 2012, and no other located account carries the claim. Hashprice, the daily revenue per unit of computing power, stood at $39.36 per petahash on 31 August against a 30-day average of $34.63 — CryptoSlate alone again.

No miner has answered Zagury in print. None of the four accounts gives a difficulty reading for Wednesday, and none says when the seven-day average might take its record back. August's adjustments were small, up 1% on the 8th and down 1.31% on the 23rd, which reads as machines that have settled rather than left. The next adjustment will show whether that holds.