Bitcoin’s mining industry is going through one of its toughest stretches in years, and the numbers tell a story that goes well beyond a simple price dip. This bitcoin mining update covers a nearly 300-day network contraction, a major bankruptcy filing, and a wave of billion-dollar bets on artificial intelligence that are reshaping how the industry makes money. Difficulty has fallen almost 20% from its peak, miners have sold record amounts of Bitcoin, and some of the same companies losing money on mining are watching their stock prices soar because of data-center deals that have nothing to do with block rewards.
Key takeaways
- Bitcoin’s network hashrate has been in a drawdown for roughly 287 consecutive days, with mining difficulty down 19.9% from its all-time high, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro.
- Poolin and two affiliated U.S. entities filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New Jersey, listing about $173 million in debt tied largely to frozen Poolin Wallet withdrawals.
- Publicly traded miners sold more than 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 alone, more than their combined sales for all of 2025.
- Hut 8’s total contracted AI portfolio has climbed to $26.6 billion, while Core Scientific’s AMD-anchored leasing deals could generate over $24 billion.
- Kazakhstan and other jurisdictions are moving to formalize digital-asset rules just as Bitcoin mining’s electricity use and low-carbon energy share both climb.
Prolonged Bitcoin Mining Contraction and Network Metrics
Bitcoin’s mining network has been shrinking for the better part of a year, and the latest data confirms this is no short-lived correction. Mining difficulty has fallen 19.9% from its November 2025 peak of roughly 156 trillion down to 126.23 trillion, marking the third-deepest drawdown since dedicated ASIC hardware replaced graphics cards as the industry standard.
Hashrate Drawdown and Difficulty Decline
Bitcoin Magazine Pro has tracked the downward trend across approximately 287 consecutive days, one of the longest sustained mining contractions on record. Network hashrate has slipped around 12% from its late-2025 peak above one zettahash per second to near 868 exahashes per second, with difficulty even turning negative on a year-over-year basis for only the second time in Bitcoin’s history. The only prior instance followed China’s 2021 mining ban — this time, no single policy event is behind it. It is the combined weight of a lower Bitcoin price, rising energy costs, and post-halving revenue compression.
Miner Revenue and Market Stress Indicators
BTC has declined roughly 46% over the past year even as shares of some publicly listed mining companies have surged more than 430%, a divergence driven almost entirely by their expansion into AI and high-performance computing. Bitcoin News reported that a composite miner cycle stress indicator, which blends the Puell Multiple with an inverse capitulation index, fell to a new 2026 low and moved deep into “undervalued” territory — a pattern previously seen only near major market bottoms in 2015, 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2024. Separately, asset manager VanEck noted miners’ average daily revenue fell 39.5% year over year to about $28.5 million, with hashprice sliding near $30.6 per PH/s per day, approaching a multi-year low even as roughly 60.8% of circulating BTC supply has remained unmoved for more than a year.
Bankruptcy Filings and Company Financial Developments
Financial distress has moved from theoretical risk to concrete casualties this year, with one of the industry’s oldest names now in bankruptcy court. The Poolin case is the clearest sign yet that this bitcoin mining bankruptcy wave is hitting operators that once ranked among the sector’s largest pools.
Poolin’s Chapter 11 Filing
Poolin and two affiliated U.S. companies filed for Chapter 11 protection in New Jersey, according to TheEnergyMag, with court filings showing approximately $173 million owed — including roughly $164 million in IOUs issued to Poolin Wallet users after withdrawals were frozen back in 2022. The companies plan to sell two mining sites in West Texas carrying a combined reserve price of $52 million. What creditors ultimately recover will hinge on how that asset auction plays out and whether the court approves the proposed sale.
Operational Results and the AI Pivot at Individual Miners
Not every miner is struggling equally. Bitdeer reported producing 990 BTC in June, up 388% year over year, while its self-mining hashrate reached 73.0 EH/s and total hashrate under management hit 86.1 EH/s. Its AI cloud business now generates approximately $76 million in annual recurring revenue with GPU utilization at 95%, and the company has signed a 10-year lease for 21.7 MW of IT load in Malaysia, expected to be delivered in early 2027, alongside a conditional lease for a data center in Norway. CleanSpark, meanwhile, signed a 20-year data center lease with an unnamed investment-grade technology company covering 175 MW at its Sandersville, Georgia campus, expected to generate roughly $6.6 billion in contracted revenue that could rise to $11.6 billion if renewal options are exercised. Digital Currency Group’s Zcash-focused Fortitude Mining has also expanded, bringing a new 12 MW facility online in Nebraska and lifting its total power capacity across seven sites past 60 MW.
The AI and High-Performance Computing Pivot
The single biggest theme running through this year’s bitcoin mining update is not bitcoin at all — it is artificial intelligence. Mining companies already control the power infrastructure, grid access and cooling capacity that AI data centers need, and that overlap has flipped the entire investment thesis around publicly traded miners.
Major Leasing Deals Reshape Miner Valuations
Hut 8 signed a second 15-year lease on July 20 for 352 MW at its Beacon Point campus in Texas, lifting that campus’s base-term contract value to $19.6 billion and pushing Hut 8’s total contracted AI portfolio to $26.6 billion, with initial delivery for the new phase scheduled for the second quarter of 2028. Core Scientific followed with an AMD partnership anchored by 15-year agreements covering about 530 MW, bringing its total leased customer capacity to roughly 1.1 GW and potential contracted revenue past $24 billion. This kind of bitcoin mining ai integration is precisely why mining stocks have broken away from Bitcoin’s price chart: a basket of mining equities gained 56% during early 2026 while BTC itself fell 17%, according to industry research. Investors are increasingly pricing these companies on power contracts and AI revenue potential rather than on how many coins they mine each month — which matters because it changes who actually benefits from a mining company’s growth: not just Bitcoin holders, but data-center tenants and AI infrastructure buyers as well.
Regulation and Energy Trends Shaping the Sector
Policy decisions and energy data are increasingly setting the boundaries for where and how mining can grow, and several developments this period point in different directions at once.
Kazakhstan, New Hampshire and Malaysia
Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev signed a decree accelerating development of the country’s digital asset market, with the Ministry of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development outlining new bitcoin mining regulations that include cross-border settlement mechanisms using digital assets and stablecoins, personal income tax incentives for compliant businesses, and provisions allowing electricity from associated gas resources to support mining operations. The decree also calls for tokenized financial products and national digital-asset trading infrastructure, reinforcing Kazakhstan’s ambitions as a regional crypto hub. In the United States, New Hampshire’s Executive Council rejected a proposed $100 million Bitcoin-backed municipal bond that would have used CleanSpark as borrower, pledging $175 million in Bitcoin as collateral with liquidation triggered if its value fell below $140 million; councilors cited concerns over exposure to a volatile crypto asset and the lack of direct infrastructure benefit to the state. Enforcement against unlicensed mining has also intensified: Malaysia’s Deputy Home Minister told Parliament that authorities seized more than 75,000 mining machines and arrested 629 people across over 3,000 raids between 2022 and May 2026, in joint operations involving national police and utility company Tenaga Nasional Berhad.
On the environmental side, preliminary data presented by the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance showed Bitcoin mining’s annualized electricity consumption rose about 38%, from 138 TWh in June 2024 to around 190 TWh by December 2025, while the share of low-carbon energy in the mining mix climbed from 52.4% to 59.4% — with hydropower overtaking natural gas as the industry’s single largest energy source. That combination of rising consumption and a greener energy mix underscores why energy policy, not just Bitcoin’s price, is becoming central to how regulators and investors judge the industry’s trajectory.
FAQ
How long has Bitcoin mining difficulty been declining?
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has been declining for approximately 287 consecutive days, down 19.9% from its all-time high, according to Bitcoin Magazine Pro.
What caused Poolin’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing?
Poolin filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy with about $173 million in debt, including significant liabilities to Poolin Wallet users after withdrawal suspensions in 2022.
Why are some mining companies’ shares rising despite Bitcoin price declines?
Shares surged because several mining companies are expanding into AI and high-performance computing businesses, which generate more stable and, in many cases, higher revenue streams than Bitcoin mining alone.
What are the recent regulatory developments in Kazakhstan related to crypto mining?
Kazakhstan enacted measures in 2026 to develop its digital asset market, including cross-border settlement mechanisms, tax incentives, and new energy support rules for mining, under a decree signed by President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Article produced with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by the editorial team.
