Bitcoin Miners Are Leaving the Network in Historic Exodus

Bitcoin is experiencing its longest recorded network decline as miners pack up and leave. The thirty day mean hash rate has dropped nineteen percent since November 2025, falling from one thousand one hundred eight exahashes per second down to eight hundred ninety eight. This slump has wiped out more computing power than the entire network possessed back in early 2021, and mining difficulty has turned negative on a year over year basis for only the second time in history.

Unlike past crashes where hardware simply relocated to new regions, this departure is structural. Public mining firms are cashing in on massive artificial intelligence hosting deals instead of mining Bitcoin. Companies like Hut 8, Core Scientific, and TeraWulf are locking in multi billion dollar leases with tech giants because hosting artificial intelligence servers pays significantly more per megawatt than running crypto rigs. As a result, miners sold over thirty two thousand Bitcoin earlier in the year to fund this pivot, and much of that lost power capacity is likely gone for good.

While some industry leaders argue that this energy shift will not harm the Bitcoin price, others warn that miners might regret abandoning the network if crypto profitability bounces back. Bitcoin currently trades near sixty four thousand dollars, while hashprice hovers around thirty to thirty two dollars per petahash daily, leaving older hardware operating at a loss. Traders should keep a close eye on upcoming network difficulty adjustments to see if fresh computing power steps in or if Bitcoin enters its next rally with a much thinner security cushion.