Mining Industry Shifts Focus to AI, Raising Concerns About Bitcoin Security

Bitcoin mining has seen significant changes in recent years, particularly with network hashrate fluctuating between over 1.1 EH/s and back down to around 900 EH/s on several occasions. This year, mining difficulty dropped by as much as 11.16% in a single adjustment in February, followed by another 10.09% decline in June.

Core Scientific reported a negative gross margin of 56% for self-mining in the second quarter, while its data center colocation business generated nearly $80 million in gross profit. TeraWulf's HPC leasing already accounted for around 71% of total revenue during the same period.

As large mining companies scale back self-mining and redirect their focus toward AI and high-performance computing (HPC), an increasing concern emerges: could Bitcoin's security eventually come under pressure if network hashrate continues to fall?