Hash Price Dives to Record Lows, Mining Economics Under Pressure
Bitcoin mining economics have entered a phase of structural change due to persistent profitability pressure. The hash price, a key indicator of mining profitability, has reached record lows in 2026, with monthly averages set at $30.37 in June, $31.21 in July, and $31.27 in March.
The BIP-110 mandatory signaling that started on August 8 saw miner support at just 2.53%, finishing the first cycle at 0.00% and failing to activate. This has led to a decrease in network hash rate (7-day moving average), which remains high, around 900 EH/s.
The difficulty adjustments in 2026 have seen more decreases (10 times) than increases (7 times). The shutdown and restart of less profitable mining machines are recurring, and publicly listed mining companies' responses are changing. MARA and CleanSpark have sold most of the Bitcoin they mined, and the cumulative announcement of AI and HPC contracts by listed mining companies has exceeded $70 billion according to CoinShares' Q1 tally.