Bitcoin Mining Bear Market Sparks Hope and Fears
The Bitcoin network's hashrate has been in decline, and some believe this could be beneficial for block reward miners who resist pivoting to AI. However, the mining sector as a whole is experiencing widespread 'capitulation,' with many operators announcing plans to exit the industry.
Raphael Zagury, CEO of Twenty One Capital, a firm linked to Tether, presented a report on the hashrate decline at the Bitcoin Asia 2026 confab. He noted that this period is different from the 2021 China crackdown, which led to a temporary hashrate plunge.
Zagury suggested that pure-play miners could benefit from the bear market by naturally increasing their share of the network's hash rate. However, he also acknowledged that many operators are pivoting to AI and other high-performance computing tasks due to the unpredictability and volatility of Bitcoin mining.