Bitcoin Hash Rate Falls 19% as Miners Flock to AI Contracts
Bitcoin's hash rate has fallen by 19% over nine months to its lowest level in history, according to Glassnode data. The decline started in November 2025 and has been ongoing ever since.
The current drop is the longest sustained decline in the network's history, surpassing two previous declines that resolved quickly. In May-July 2021, China's mining ban cut the hash rate by 42% over about 10 weeks, but it reversed within six months as relocated Chinese hardware came back online.
The current mechanism driving the decline is structural rather than cyclical. Miners are signing long-term AI hosting leases on the same power capacity that used to run Bitcoin-specific hardware. Hut 8 reports $26.6 billion in contracted AI portfolio value, while Core Scientific leases roughly 1.1 gigawatts of capacity to CoreWeave.
Public mining firms now hold more than $70 billion in AI-related contracts, making it unlikely for the lost capacity to return to Bitcoin mining due to simple economics. AI hosting reportedly pays 3 to 25 times as much per megawatt as Bitcoin mining does.