Bitcoin network hashrate has declined considerably owing to the fact that major mining players are shifting their resources to artificial intelligence and high-performance computing. This comes at a time when the mining difficulty level was reduced by 7.76%, the second largest reduction in 2026. This reduction has seen the hashrate dip below the 1 ZH/s barrier.
For years, miners chased BTC rewards.
Now some are chasing AI compute instead.Hashrate dipping = major signal 🚨 pic.twitter.com/xG9rkuVQ4P
— Maartunn (@JA_Maartun) March 23, 2026
Profitability pressures drive industrial capitulation
The decline reflects a broader trend of economic capitulation among miners facing compressed margins. With Bitcoin production costs estimated at $88,000 per coin and market prices hovering near $69,200, many operators are finding traditional mining unsustainable.
Hashprice, a metric measuring daily revenue per unit of computing power, hit a record low of $27.89 per PH/s/day in February. While it saw a slight rebound to $33.30 in late March, the financial incentive for pure-play mining remains weak compared to alternative workloads.
Industry heavyweights like Core Scientific and MARA Holdings have signalled plans to liquidate Bitcoin holdings to fund their transitions into AI infrastructure. Core Scientific recently filed with the SEC to monetize its BTC stack, citing the need for capital to expand its AI hosting capacity.
Strategic reset favours high-margin AI contracts
The move into AI offers a more stable and lucrative revenue stream, with some contracts generating ten to twenty times more revenue per megawatt than Bitcoin mining. Publicly traded firms are now marketing themselves as digital infrastructure companies rather than simple miners.
Hut 8 Corp. has been at the forefront of this transformation, recently highlighting a $7 billion infrastructure agreement with Fluidstack, backed by Google. The firm’s CEO, Asher Genoot, emphasized that 2026 is defined by the execution of these AI-focused delivery milestones.
This shift is reshaping the competitive landscape of the blockchain industry. As noted in recent DeFi Planet reports, the integration of AI-powered research tools is becoming a priority for firms seeking to maintain a technological edge. The transition also echoes wider structural changes where crypto-native firms embrace AI to diversify liquidity. This strategy aims to build resilient cash flows that allow companies to hold or sell digital assets more strategically in the future.
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