Bitcoin Mining Power Nears Record, But Miner Profits Suffer

Bitcoin's network computing power is rapidly approaching a record near one zettahash per second, leading to increased competition among miners.

This surge in hashrate has put pressure on mining revenue due to rising difficulty and lower hashprice, prompting miners to seek cheaper power or diversify their operations.

In response, some mining firms like MARA and IREN are shifting some of their power capacity to AI workloads, as emerging AI data centers become strong competitors for electricity. This trend suggests that future miner success will depend more on efficient power use and alternative revenue streams than sheer mining scale.