Bitcoin Miners Cut Capacity as AI Infrastructure Revenue Surges
Publicly traded Bitcoin miners are cutting back on their mining capacity at a faster rate than the overall Bitcoin network, according to data from BlocksBridge Consulting. The realized hashrate among a group of public miners fell by 13.4% between Q4 2025 and Q2 2026, from 368.3 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 319 EH/s.
This decline is even more pronounced when excluding Bitdeer, which expanded its mining operations during this period. Without Bitdeer, the cohort's realized hashrate dropped by 21.2%, from 324.6 EH/s to 255.9 EH/s. In contrast, Bitdeer's realized hashrate increased by 44% to 63 EH/s.
The Bitcoin network's average hashrate declined by 10.6% over the same period.
As miners reduce their mining capacity, they are redirecting electricity and infrastructure towards data centers and high-performance computing (HPC) facilities. This shift is driven by growing demand for AI infrastructure since 2022, which has become a significant source of revenue for some public miners.