Bitcoin Miners Abandon Ship as Hash Rate Plummets Amid AI Hosting Shift
Bitcoin's (BTC) mean hash rate has seen a significant decline of 19% since November 2025, dropping from 1,108 EH/s to 898 EH/s. According to Glassnode data, this nine-month decline is the longest in the network's history. The slide coincides with the largest capital migration miners have ever staged, with public mining firms holding over $70 billion in AI contracts.
The current slump is different from previous collapses, both in terms of depth and duration. The 2021 collapse cut deeper in percentage terms but reversed within six months as Chinese hardware relocated to the US and Central Asia. In contrast, the 2024 dip was a routine purge of inefficient rigs after the halving, with new machines replacing lost capacity within a quarter.
The AI contracts explain why the capacity is not coming back. Hut 8 reports $26.6 billion in contracted AI portfolio value, while Core Scientific leases around 1.1 GW to CoreWeave. TeraWulf signed a 20-year lease with Anthropic worth about $19 billion.