Bitcoin Mining Hashrate Nears Record Territory Amid AI Infrastructure Boom

Bitcoin's network computing power is nearing record territory near one zettahash per second. This milestone is putting pressure on miners who are already dealing with thinner economics and increasingly attractive alternatives in artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The estimated network hashrate was around 974 EH/s on September 1, after exceeding 1.03 ZH/s on August 31 and crossing the one-zettahash threshold several times during August. Hashrate estimates fluctuate because network computing power is inferred from block production rather than directly measured in real time.

The increasing hashrate strengthens Bitcoin's security but intensifies competition among miners for essentially the same block rewards. As more computing power joins the network, Bitcoin's difficulty mechanism adjusts upward to keep block production near one block every 10 minutes. This means a miner needs to expand their hashrate just to maintain the same share of network rewards.

The strain is already visible in public-company results. MARA's energized mining hashrate rose 22% year over year to 70.3 EH/s in Q2 2026, yet quarterly revenue fell 27% to $174.9 million. The company mined 2,422 BTC during the quarter while reporting purchased energy costs of roughly $38,690 per BTC at owned sites.