Bitcoin Hash Rate Reclaims 1,000 EH/s as Mining Firms Shift to AI

Key Facts

Bitcoin’s seven-day average network hash rate reclaimed the 1,000 EH/s threshold in the week before the October 25 report, reaching its highest level since March 3, according to Bitcoin.com News, citing BlocksBridge Consulting’s Miner Weekly. The hash rate stood at 1,080.23 EH/s at the time of the report, according to a separate report from the same source. Hash rate measures the estimated computing power participating in the network, and the weekly reading had returned to a level not seen for nearly eight months. This comes as publicly listed mining companies shift to leasing electricity and computing sites to AI operators, putting the recovery against the backdrop of mining capacity leaving the public market. The rise in the average does not prove that machines that left major mining companies have returned to the network or that other miners have replaced them.

The rise in hash rate coincided with tighter mining conditions, as Bitcoin mining difficulty increased 5.92% in the October 16 adjustment, according to BlocksBridge. The report estimated that the pace of block production pointed to a further increase of about 5.16% around 7 days after its publication on October 25. The average interval between blocks was 9 minutes and 31 seconds in the 24 hours before Bitcoin.com News’ report. The next adjustment was expected on October 29, according to the report. These figures reflect a return of computing power alongside higher requirements to compete in producing blocks. Thus, difficulty data showed no sign that some companies’ shift to AI activities had eased competition for the miners that remained on the network.

But the improvement in hash rate did not increase miners’ daily return per unit of computing power; hashprice was $36.04 per PH/s per day on October 25, compared with $40.42 on September 25, according to Bitcoin.com News, citing Hashrate Index data. Against this backdrop, CoinShares estimated that the average pre-tax cash cost of producing Bitcoin at publicly listed mining companies reached about $75,500 per coin in the second quarter of 2026. Bitcoin’s price at the end of that quarter was $58,400, according to the same report. The monthly average hashprice also hit a record low of $27.7 per PH/s per day in June. CoinShares said hash rate was then about 50% below its trend, putting the average’s return to the 1,000 EH/s threshold in the context of a recovery from previous weakness, rather than a confirmed improvement in mining profitability.

The shift in economics strengthens companies’ incentive to repurpose their sites and electricity, as CoinShares estimated AI earnings at about $1.5 million per megawatt, compared with about $500,000 per megawatt from Bitcoin mining. The report said IREN’s AI cloud computing revenue exceeded its mining revenue for the first time, at $70.5 million versus $66.7 million. Reuters Breakingviews reported that Cipher Digital, TeraWulf and Hut 8 are leasing electricity they had used to mine cryptocurrencies to chatbot operators, while IREN built an integrated server farm. CoinShares estimated that at least 35 EH/s of capacity would leave the group of publicly listed mining companies, equivalent to about 4.7% of a hash rate of 750 EH/s at the time of the report published on September 15. These shifts indicate that decisions on allocating power and sites are increasingly tied to the returns from different computing uses, rather than Bitcoin’s price alone.

Companies are at different stages of the transition; Keel, formerly known as Bitfarms, halted mining in June, and CoinShares reported that its sites stopped operating on June 29 and that its mining revenue would be zero in the third quarter of 2026. IREN plans to complete its exit from mining by the end of 2026, while a CoinShares report projected that Cipher Digital would exit by the end of 2027. Some smaller miners, meanwhile, may restart used equipment sold by larger companies, but BlocksBridge said it was unclear how much equipment had returned to the network and where it came from. CoinShares estimated that several operators had committed to leases for AI and high-performance computing sites lasting more than 15 years. The report said a Bitcoin price recovery alone was unlikely to reverse this shift, given the length of the commitments made.

Data center expansion faces land and power grid constraints; CoinShares identified more than 225 temporary halts or restrictions on data center development across 30 U.S. states, 151 of which remained in effect. The report estimated the backlog of U.S. electricity interconnection requests at about 2,600 gigawatts. On the ERCOT grid, data centers accounted for 87% of the 410-gigawatt large-load queue. Meanwhile, the report said announced AI and high-performance computing contracts worth more than $100 billion supported only about $1.1 billion in annual revenue. Utility bills covered about 550 megawatts, compared with more than 4 gigawatts of contracted capacity. These figures put the conversion of mining sites to the test of turning announced commitments into operating capacity and actual revenue.

In the market, Bitcoin closed at $84,093.42 on October 21, then at $80,909.77 on October 27 and $81,170.01 on October 28, according to EL7 data. In earlier coverage of the sector, EL7 published a story on June 24 about mining’s shift toward energy efficiency amid eroding margins, then covered on August 12 Riot Platforms’ announced $9.1 billion deal with Anthropic to support AI infrastructure. The next near-term milestone in network data was the mining difficulty adjustment expected on October 29, according to the October 25 report. Hash rate, hashprice and mining difficulty remain separate indicators: a return of computing power does not by itself mean higher returns per unit or the return to mining of companies that have exited. The October 25 reading showed the weekly average recovering alongside a decline in hashprice from its September level and the continued shift by companies to computing contracts.