A severe Arctic blast sweeping across the United States has forced Bitcoin miners to take more than 110 exahashes per second of computing power offline, temporarily slowing block production to 12 minutes as operators curtail operations to ease strain on regional power grids, according to The Miner Mag.
The widespread shutdowns mark one of the largest coordinated mining curtailments since the 2021 Texas grid crisis, with FoundryUSA’s hashrate dropping nearly 60% since Friday.
Real-time data from Mining Pool Stats shows FoundryUSA’s hashrate fell from approximately 340 EH/s to roughly 242 EH/s over the weekend, while Luxor recorded a similar decline from about 45 EH/s to around 26 EH/s.
Smaller reductions appeared across Antpool and Binance Pool, though these pools serve less U.S.-concentrated operations, suggesting total curtailments may exceed the initial 110 EH/s estimate, The Miner Mag reported.
The hashrate pullback coincided with a severe Arctic air mass pushing subfreezing temperatures, snow, and ice deep into the central and eastern United States.
Grid operators across multiple states issued conservation alerts as heating demand surged, yet Texas’s grid operator ERCOT reported on Friday that conditions remained stable despite the cold weather.
The stability contrasts sharply with February 2021, when Winter Storm Uri triggered widespread outages and prolonged blackouts across the state.
Since that crisis, Texas has added substantial large-load capacity, much of it tied to Bitcoin mining and data center operations.
Unlike traditional industrial loads, many Bitcoin miners participate in demand response programs, allowing them to rapidly curtail consumption during periods of grid stress.
As noted by The Miner Mag, this flexible-load model represents a dynamic shift from the 2021 scenario, when such infrastructure did not exist to support grid balancing during extreme weather events.
The U.S. #AI compute boom is running into a familiar problem.
Local communities aren’t buying it.
If this sounds familiar to #bitcoin miners, that’s because it is.
Singapore-based miner Bitdeer, which operates over 293,000 rigs globally, including facilities in Texas, said in a statement that it does not anticipate major disruptions from the storm.
A company spokesperson explained that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas considers Bitcoin miners “large flexible loads,” meaning they can curtail electricity usage on request, unlike other industrial users with firm electrical demands.
“Bitdeer stands ready to fully support the grid should supply constraints occur,” the spokesperson added.
The curtailments come as Bitcoin’s seven-day average network hashrate had already declined to about 992 EH/s, down roughly 13.7% from the all-time high of above 1.15 ZH/s reached in October, according to data reported by The Miner Mag last week.
Storm Threatens 60 Million People Across 1,800 Miles
The massive winter storm extends for 1,800 miles from far west Texas to the mid-Atlantic coast, threatening to affect upwards of 60 million people across more than a dozen states, according to AccuWeather.
Source: AccuWeather
AccuWeather Senior Vice President Evan Myers warned that the combination of snow, ice, and bitter cold across such a large area would “stall daily life for days,” with some power outages lasting through extended periods as Arctic air charges in behind the storm.
About 60 million people will experience icing conditions, with potentially 1 million people without power for an extended period, AccuWeather estimated.
AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter noted that many areas hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September 2024 still have temporary power lines that “may come down more easily than permanent lines,” potentially stretching recovery resources and personnel to the limit across North Carolina and other affected states.
The storm’s intensity has already prompted thousands of flight cancellations across the region as airlines deal with displaced aircraft and crews.
Source: AccuWeather
AccuWeather Storm Warning Meteorologist William Clark cautioned that “entire supply chains may break down from prolonged days of extensive interstate closures,” warning that critical supplies, including pharmaceuticals and basic necessities, may become scarce in the hardest-hit areas.
The United States controls nearly 38% of the global Bitcoin hashrate according to estimates from Hashrate Index, making American mining operations critical to network security.
How to hack Bitcoin? How does the blockchain calculate time? How does mining difficulty change? What happens if two miners mine a block simultaneously? Where are transactions stored before confirmation, how are fees calculated, and is it possible to send a transaction with zero fee? What types of nodes exist in the blockchain, and how do they differ? When can you use mining rewards?
This is roughly how I studied all the information around these topics.
Here I provide deeper answers to these questions because popular materials about Bitcoin either don’t explain these things at all or do so very superficially. To understand this article, you need a minimal understanding of how blockchain works, which you can get here: https://vas3k.com/blog/blockchain/
TL;DR
How to hack Bitcoin? A quantum computer will only be able to derive a private key from a public key after a transaction has been sent. If no transaction has occurred, the wallet is protected. A 51% attack only provides the ability to cancel your own or others’ transactions to double-spend your own coins; gaining control over others’ coins is impossible.
How does mining difficulty change? Difficulty is recalculated every ~2 weeks based on the mining time of the previous two weeks.
What happens if two miners mine a block at the same time? The chain temporarily splits until one branch becomes longer. The longer branch becomes the main one.
When can mining rewards be used? After 100 blocks.
How does the blockchain calculate time? Based on the median time of the past 11 blocks and the system time of the nodes.
Where are transactions stored before confirmation, how is the fee calculated, and can you send without one? They’re stored on nodes for no more than two weeks. A zero-fee transaction is theoretically possible but practically almost impossible to get confirmed.
What nodes are in the blockchain and how do they differ? Full nodes — hold the blockchain data and enforce the rules. Miners — query full nodes for data and build new blocks. Light nodes — often used in wallets on weak devices; they query full nodes for what they need.
What’s the point of Bitcoin (besides speculation), in plain English
At the end of researching.
Bitcoin is an alternative financial system that does not require user trust. When using traditional banks, we must trust them not to steal or lose our money, and if that happens, we must trust the state to be able to return it. We also have to hope that money won’t be blocked at the whim of authorities or bank employees.
The point of Bitcoin is the opposite: everything is tied to strict mathematics that removes the probability of all these potential problems (or drastically reduces), provided you store Bitcoin in a personal non-custodial wallet.
Non-custodial wallet: A wallet controlled only by whoever has the private key; essentially just a small file/program that stores keys and signs transactions.
Custodial wallet: An account on an exchange that controls your assets and stores your funds in its own non-custodial wallets. This allows the exchange to block or seize your funds if you violate its rules or national laws, though the exchange offers more convenient and expanded functionality in return.
Interesting fact: A Bitcoin wallet is not an object inside the blockchain, but a program that stores keys and signs transactions.
The blockchain stores UTXOs (Unspent Transaction Outputs). Each UTXO is “locked” by a condition (program), usually tied to an address (practically, a hash of a public key).
To spend a UTXO, the wallet creates a transaction referencing that UTXO as an input and adds a signature. Network nodes verify the signature and the script’s execution. As a result, the old UTXO becomes spent, and the transaction creates new outputs — new UTXOs for the recipients.
A private key is a number. A public key can be calculated if you have the private key, but the reverse is practically impossible (how that’s attacked is discussed later in the “attacks” section). Using a private key, you can sign data, but this signature cannot be forged with a public key. Meanwhile, the public key can verify that the signature was produced by the corresponding private key.
— — — — —END-PRIVATE-KEY — — — — —
In early versions, the wallet address was the public key. But later, addresses derived as a hash/encoding of the key or script began to be used. This is a crucial point for the section on quantum computer attacks.
Once a transaction is signed, it must be embedded in a block. First, it goes into a general pool of unconfirmed transactions (mempool), where any miner can take it to create a block.
But a transaction can exist only once in the blockchain, so the network can’t allow every miner to create their own block with the same set of transactions and have them all accepted.
Block Header
Each block has a header containing version data, the previous block’s hash, the merkle root (hash of all transactions in the current block), time, bits (mining difficulty), and a nonce.
All of these fields are combined and then hashed via SHA-256.
SHA-256 is a hashing technology: take some data and turn it into a different set of numbers that you can’t convert back into the original data if you only know the hash. But you _can_ verify it, because for a fixed input X the result is always the same output Y. So knowing X gives you Y; knowing Y does not practically give you X back — even with a quantum computer.
You can try hashing any data here. SHA-256 is also one of the core tools in the HTTPS connections we use every day, and it plays a key role in hundreds of internet protocols.
The nonce is needed to find out whose block to record. Miners change the nonce so the header’s hash is less than the target. In our example, the hash has 19 zeros.
Finding such a hash is hard. It takes roughly ~10 minutes of the entire Bitcoin network’s mining power. Blocks should appear roughly every 10 minutes — that’s how Satoshi Nakamoto designed it.
Why exactly this many zeros, and how does mining difficulty change?
Proof of Work in real life
It’s not actually about the zeros, but about the **target**. The target determines mining difficulty: the smaller the target, the higher the difficulty. A valid block header hash must be ≤ the target. Because small target numbers in hexadecimal start with zeros, hashes often appear with many leading zeros (e.g., ~19 or more). The smaller the target, the rarer it is for a random hash to land below it, so mining becomes harder.
Difficulty Calculation Hack: If the difficulty increases by 16 times, the required threshold becomes 16 times lower— often resulting in one additional leading hex-zero.
Difficulty adjustments (retarget) occur every 2016 blocks (roughly 2 weeks, 1 block ~10 minutes). The blockchain uses a simple formula:
Target_new= target_old*T_act/T_exp, 4Texp
Target_new = new target (new difficulty) Target_old = old target T_act = actual time it took to mine the last 2016 blocks T_exp = expected time for 2016 blocks: 2016*600 seconds (10 min = 600 sec) 4T_exp= The change is limited: difficulty can’t shift more than 4× either way.
If, since the last difficulty retarget, the network’s total hash rate (the combined power of all miners) has increased over the past 2,016 blocks, then with near-certainty the average time to mine a block will decrease. That means the actual time to produce those 2,016 blocks T_act will be less than the expected time T_exp, so T_act/T_exp < 1. As a result, the new target Target_new will go down: and the lower the target, the higher the difficulty and the harder it is to mine.
But what to do if two different miners mine a block at the same time?
That happens,and there’s a safety mechanism for it.
In theory, they can make practically identical blocks if the same transactions in the same order fall into each block. But blocks still won’t be identical because the first transaction in every block is the coinbase (the miner reward), and it pays to the miner’s address — so two miners can’t have the exact same block because their addresses differ.
But it is possible that two miners almost simultaneously mine different blocks. If the delay between the creation of a block and its distribution among nodes is 2 seconds, then this means that after the creation of the first block, there is a two-second gap in which a second block can be created. The longer this time, the higher the probability, but with each year this time is reduced. The probability of creating three blocks is almost negligible, but the protection system is the same.
If two blocks are created, they are saved in nodes, and these two chains are passed further. Miners then choose which block to build on — usually the one they saw first. And when they find the next block for one of the chains, it is distributed further and the nodes agree with it, and the shorter version is forgotten. This is the rule of the longer chain. Even if 2, 3, or more blocks in a row are formed in two chains, sooner or later one branch outpaces the other.
Transactions have 3 probable paths:
1. Fall into the chain that wins, then they remain in the blockchain. 2. Fall into both chains, then only the version in the winning chain remains relevant. 3. Fall into the chain that loses, then they go again into the pools of unconfirmed transactions (more on this below).
A few numbers:
Approx. probability of a fork given ~1s delay: 0.17%
A second block on the same competing branch: 0.00028%
Third: 4.6*10^⁻⁹
Fourth: 7.7*10^⁻¹²
That’s why exchanges don’t credit your deposit after 1 confirmation. Typically they wait for 6 confirmations — ~1 hour on average (6 blocks × 10 minutes).
There is no limit to the length of the second/third chain because they disappear quickly. Not counting these two cases:
Reorganization through 53 blocks due to a bug in the software (source).
Another incident with reorganization through 24 blocks (source).
And there is also the possibility of an attack through a second chain, but about this at the very end.
From this follows the next question:
Since the miner receives a reward for mining a block, what happens when two blocks are mined?
Simple: a miner can spend the reward only after 100 blocks.
If you are a miner and mined block № 1000, you will be able to use the reward for this block only starting from block №1100. This looks like a time-lock transaction, but technically it is not one. I will write about the time-lock technology next time, this is already turning into too much text.
Miners add transactions to the blockchain, receiving a fee for this. And from this follow a few more questions:
Where and for how long are unconfirmed transactions stored, and can a transaction with a zero fee pass in theory?
The fee in Bitcoin depends not on the number of tokens sent in the transaction, but on the size of the transaction and the occupancy of the network at the given moment. After sending your transaction from a non-custodial wallet, it goes to the nearest node(s), these nodes decide based on several characteristics whether to accept your transaction or not:
1. Does it comply with the rules and did you not assign yourself non-existent tokens or something else? 2. Is the specified transaction fee sufficient?
If the answer to one of these questions is no, the node will not take the transaction and it will not fall into the blockchain, and your balance will not change. It turns out that a zero fee, in most cases, will not pass into the blockchain, although theoretically a miner can include such a transaction in a block, it is extremely unlikely.
How does a node assign a fee?
The node has a certain amount of memory where it stores such unconfirmed transactions after receiving them, but until the moment they are recorded in the blockchain.
By default, it is limited to 300 MiB of RAM memory and 336 hours of storage. However, if the blocksonly setting is enabled in Bitcoin-Core 25.0, the RAM memory will be reduced to 5 MiB; this is often done for validating the blockchain.
All these data can be changed when setting up the node, but this is often not done, as for most it would be a simple waste of extra resources.
And what will happen if you send a transaction with the minimum allowable fee?
If the node does not throw it out after adoption due to overflow, and if miners will not take this transaction due of small fee, it will be deleted after 336 hours = 2 weeks.
After the transaction is accepted, nodes distribute it to other nodes, and miners insert transactions with the highest fees into the block.
Considering the limits on transaction size of 400,000 weight units ≈ 100KB (but it could be more with SegWit, but those are already too small details). A maximum of 10 such large transactions can fit into 1 block, and ≈ 10,000 of the smallest. But on average it comes out to 2500 transactions per 1 block.
The fee itself is calculated by the formula: fee (sat) = vsize (vB) * feerate (sat/vB)
fee = commission.
vsize = transaction size.
sat = satoshi, in one Bitcoin there are 100,000,000 satoshis.
vB = Virtual Byte.
Your wallet can find out the minimum feerate from the nodes, but this is the lower boundary of whether the transaction will be distributed, not a guarantee of its confirmation. To estimate how much you need to pay now, wallets use mempool statistics and confirmation history.
An average transaction weighs 150vB; if at the given moment the average sat/vB = 2, then the transaction will cost 300 sat. And it will cost $0.27.
For example, for this transaction of 45,177 BTC (several billion $), the fee was less than $1.
The highest sat/vB was in April 2024 during the halving and was from 1795 to 2751 sat/vB (source). On that day, an average transaction would have already cost from $160 to $245, depending on how quickly it needed to be processed.
The busier the network, the higher sat/vB. If you want your transaction to get confirmed faster, you set sat/vB above the current average.
Nodes define the fee as: fee = sum(inputs) — sum(outputs), then they look at the transaction size to check if it fits their internal policies.
Don’t forget about UTXO: if over time you received 10 separate incoming transactions, and now you want to send the entire balance in one transaction, the blockchain sees that as 10 inputs — meaning the transaction is larger and therefore more expensive.
To save on fees in the future, it is useful to sometimes do “consolidation” — sending yourself all small remnants in one transaction when the network is calm and sat/vB is minimal.
Returning to the first topic and the block header, the following question may arise:
How does the blockchain know that ~10 minutes passed, and that miners aren’t lying?
The blockchain receives information about the time from miners and nodes (nodes that store information but do not mine) in UTC format.
Miners write the time in the block header. Nodes have their own clocks and verify the median time received from other nodes.
Bitcoin is a closed system, so the blockchain cannot connect to ntp.org to check if the miners are writing the truth in the block header and the nodes or not.
How can the blockchain check if the nodes and especially the miners aren’t lying?
For this, there is MTP — Median Time Past.
Median Time Past is easier to understand than Past Simple.
Not the average, but precisely the median.
It is calculated from the last 11 blocks arranged in order. For example:
18, 2, 12000 (liar), 14, 6, 20, 10, 4, 16, 12, 8
If we take the average value, then we need to sum all these numbers and divide by 11, we get 1100. Because of the liar who put 12000, everything has changed a lot.
But if we take the median, then first we arrange them in order:
2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 12000 (liar)
And we take the value from the middle, that is, 12. This is how MTP is calculated.
The time of a new block is always greater than the MTP; otherwise, the block will not be accepted by other miners/nodes and will not be inserted into the blockchain.
But if someone wants to go to the future, at what time gap should blocks be rejected?
What will affect my future more, 10 push-ups or this article?
In the past Bitcoin used NAT — Network Adjusted Time (time adjusted by the network), which compared median time from peers. Later NAT was removed as a consensus component.
Now nodes use their own system UTC time to check how far “into the future” a new block is. If a block’s timestamp is more than 2 hours ahead of a node’s local time, that node rejects it.
If some node’s time differs significantly from other nodes, then NAT warns about it — that’s basically the only remaining use.
Miners and other nodes, how do they differ and why are they needed?
There are 3 main types of nodes in Bitcoin: a full node with two variations (archival and pruned), a light node, and a miner.
The other nodes are superstructures on top of these three pillars of the blockchain.
Full archival node: a server that has all the information about the blockchain for all time. Validates or rejects blocks in accordance with the rules of the blockchain.
Full pruned node: also checks blocks but does not store all data, only the UTXO and part of the last blocks.
Relay node: a superstructure on top of a full node, which is connected to other nodes with a large number of peers for fast distribution of information. Like torrent seeders.
Light node: stores only block headers to check their hashes. For transactions, it ask information from full node. Great for phone wallets or weak devices where storing dozens/hundreds of GB is inconvenient.
Miner: takes information from a full node or is one; based on this information, searches for a nonce to produce a valid block, then broadcasts it to the network.
If you need a non-custodial wallet on a PC, then perhaps a full pruned node for this would be the best option. You can choose the one you need here: bitcoin.org/en/choose-your-wallet?step=1
How to hack Bitcoin?
There are many possible attack vectors. If I described all of them, the article would be longer than it already is. But someday I will write. For now, let’s briefly look at two hack variants that are often talked about.
Quantum Computer VS Bitcoin
A quantum computer could derive a private key from a public key — but there’s already partial protection. If you’ve never spent from your address, your wallet is protected because outsiders see only the hash of your public key, not the public key itself.
Even with a quantum computer, it is practically impossible to brute-force the hash of a public key. But after the first outgoing transaction, the public key becomes visible to everyone. Therefore, to protect against quantum attacks, you should use addresses once.
However, there’s still a possible “interception” scenario: if a quantum computer could, after you broadcast a transaction but before it’s confirmed, derive your private key from your revealed public key — it would have very little time, but that’s the idea.
But there are wallets (outputs) of old formats, where the public key is visible immediately, and such wallets can be hacked even if there was not a single transaction from them.
And there are also many “lost” wallets; transactions were made from some, but that was many years ago. And with the help of quantum computers, coins from these wallets will probably fall back into circulation and possibly crash the Bitcoin price. But let’s leave these speculations to analysts who were perfectly described by one satirical channel:
”Last week’s target for Bitcoin at 34 thousand dollars has been revised and now stands at 240 thousand.”
So, a quantum computer will not destroy Bitcoin in this way.
But they are already thinking about creating a reusable quantum-protected wallet. This will require a soft-fork (change of rules), which has been done more than once.
If 1 person has more than 51% of the mining power, it will be easy for him to create a second chain of blocks as he wants. In this case, he will be able to cancel transactions and rewrite the history of his spending.
But even in this case, he will not be able in any way to steal someone else’s coins that were never on his wallet. The older the transactions that need to be rewritten, the longer and harder it will be, and there is no 100% guarantee that it will work and he will be able to make his chain longer and faster than the other 49%.
Such an attack is possible even with 30% and 40%, but the probability is much lower.
How much money will be needed for such an attack? If we attack from scratch, then we essentially have to have a power 0.5% more than the entire power of Bitcoin miners. The hashrate today is approximately 1 ZH/s = 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 SHA-256 hash findings per second.
Modern ASICs (mining devices) have a power of approximately 200 TH/s, meaning 5,000,000 of them will be needed. Their efficiency is ≈ 17–20 J/TH. Multiply by 10⁹ and you get 17–20 GW. A bit less than the power of the largest hydroelectric dam in the world.
To this, we add the prices for the ASICs themselves, which comes out to ≈ $7.5 billion. Not counting extra infrastructure which will also be very expensive.
Even all these costs will lead at most to double spending of own coins in the blockchain and censorship of transactions. And even then, it will be visible to everyone and the price will probably crash and the game will not be worth the candle.
Kingsport City Board of Mayor and Aldermen has approved amendments to zoning rules that make it possible for cryptocurrency mining companies and data centers to operate locally, at a time when noise from such operations has become a contentious issue…
After the swivel by Helium Inc. towards simply running distributed WiFi hotspots after for years pushing LoRaWAN nodes, much of the associated hardware became effectively obsolete. This led to quite a few of these Nebra LoRa Miners getting sold off, with the [Buy it Fix it] channel being one of those who sought to give these chunks of IP-67-rated computing hardware a new life.
Originally designed to be part of the Helium Network Token (HNT) cryptocurrency mining operation, with users getting rewarded by having these devices operating, they contain fairly off-the-shelf hardware. As can be glanced from e.g. the Sparkfun product page, it’s basically a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 3+ on a breakout board with a RAK 2287 LoRa module. The idea in the video was to convert it into a Meshcore repeater, which ought to be fairly straightforward, one might think.
Unfortunately the unit came with a dead eMMC chip on the compute module, the LoRa module wasn’t compatible with Meshcore, and the Nebra breakout board only covers the first 24 pins of the standard RPi header on its pin header.
The solutions involved using a µSD card for the firmware instead of the eMMC, and doing some creative routing on the bottom of the breakout board to connect the unconnected pins on the breakout’s RPi header to the pins on the compute module’s connector. This way a compatible LoRa module could be placed on this header.
Rather than buying an off-the-shelf LoRa module for the RPi and waiting for delivery, a custom module was assembled from an eByte E22 LoRa module and some stripboard to test whether the contraption would work at all. Fortunately a test of the system as a Meshcore repeater showed that it works as intended, serving as a pretty decent proof-of-concept of how to repurpose those systems from a defunct crypto mining scheme into a typical LoRa repeater, whether Meshcore or equivalent.
Ethiopia has announced it is looking for a global partner to build a state-backed Bitcoin mining operation, moving from a model of hosting private miners toward something run with government involvement.
The call for partners was made at the Finance Forward Ethiopia 2026 event and signals a clearer role for the state in the country’s crypto plans.
State Seeks Global Partner
Reports say Ethiopian Investment Holdings, the country’s sovereign fund, will lead the search and help set up the project with outside capital and technical know-how.
This shift aims to turn cheap, surplus hydropower into a steady source of foreign income instead of leaving it unused.
The move is simple on paper. Use local power. Create jobs. Bring in money. But the reality is quite complex. Ethiopia has already seen miners move in, drawn by low rates and access to hydroelectric plants.
Some deals have been quietly signed. The government hopes that a formal partner will bring better oversight and clearer returns to the state rather than the piecemeal contracts that came earlier.
Hydropower And Money
Large miners have started running rigs in Ethiopia, and one company from the UAE brought a 30MW facility online late last year, tapping into hydropower near Addis Ababa. That project is one example of how outside firms are already scaling operations in the country.
For Ethiopia, this is a revenue play. Reports show the state power utility earned tens of millions of dollars by selling electricity to miners in a recent period, money that would otherwise not have been realized. Those receipts helped make the argument that mining can be folded into national plans for growth.
Some observers worry about tradeoffs. Mining uses lots of equipment and steady power. That can crowd out industrial customers if not managed well. It can also tie a portion of the grid to a business whose income swings with Bitcoin prices.
Still, the government says it wants a partner to reduce these risks and to share expertise so the country benefits more directly.
What Comes Next
Finding the right partner will take time. Reports list interest from firms across the Middle East and Asia, and the government will need to balance foreign deals with local priorities.
The plan also sits inside the wider Digital Ethiopia 2030 effort, which links technology projects to economic goals.
Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView
On-chain data shows the Bitcoin Hashrate has continued to decline, with its 7-day average value hitting lows not seen since early September.
Bitcoin Hashrate Has Been Sliding Down
The Bitcoin “Hashrate” refers to a measure of the total amount of computing power that the miners as a whole have connected to the network. It’s denoted in units of hashes per second (H/s) or, more practically, in exahashes per second (EH/s). This indicator can be useful for gauging the sentiment shared by the miners. Growth in the network Hashrate can signal that this cohort is either responding to a period of profitability or expanding in anticipation of future price action. On the other hand, a decline can signal a weakening of sentiment.
As the chart below from Blockchain.com shows, the 7-day average value of the Bitcoin Hashrate has been following the latter kind of trajectory in recent months.
The Hashrate set a new all-time high (ATH) in mid-October, but miners moved to decommissioning power as the cryptocurrency’s price went through its bearish shift in that month. Recently, BTC has shown some recovery, but that doesn’t appear to have changed opinion among the miners, as the metric’s value has only continued to go down.
Currently, the 7-day average Bitcoin Hashrate is sitting at 978.8 EH/s, which is the lowest level since the first half of September. The recent low levels are on a path to affect another BTC-network-related metric: the Difficulty. The Difficulty is a feature built into the blockchain that controls how hard it is for miners to mine blocks. This metric automatically changes its value about every two weeks based on how fast miners have been performing their duty since the last adjustment.
Satoshi coded in a simple rule for the network to follow: block time should converge to 10 minutes. If miners take an average time faster than this to find a block, the chain raises its Difficulty in the next adjustment. Similarly, a decrease instead happens if the validators are slower at their job.
As miners have reduced their computing power over the last few months, their pace has been going down, and the network has been adjusting the Difficulty lower.
With the Hashrate decline only continuing recently, the network is once again moving toward another relaxation in Difficulty, as data from CoinWarz suggests.
The average Bitcoin block time has stood at 10.43 minutes since the last adjustment, which is notably slower than the standard rate. As a result, the network is estimated to reduce the Difficulty by 4.15%.
With the adjustment still being a few days away, however, this figure could change depending on whether miners expand or decommission in the coming days.
BTC Price
At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $93,000, up 2.5% in the last seven days.
Canaan Inc. is at risk of a Nasdaq delisting as it has fallen below the exchange’s minimum bid price threshold for the second time over the past 12 months. Shares for the Bitcoin mining hardware maker were down over 63%…
Riot Platforms (NASDAQ: RIOT) has completed the purchase of 200 acres at its Rockdale, Texas, site and signed a long-term data center lease with Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD), marking the first major hyperscale tenant at the location.
The fee simple acquisition replaces Riot’s prior ground lease at Rockdale and was funded entirely through the sale of approximately 1,080 bitcoin from the company’s balance sheet, totaling $96 million.
The mining company said the purchase secures long-term operational control of the site and opens it for large-scale data center development.
The property includes a 700 MW grid interconnection, dedicated water supply, and fiber connectivity.
Shares of Riot’s stock jumped roughly 13% following the announcement and are currently trading at $18.70 a share.
Under the new lease, the company will deliver 25 megawatts (MW) of critical IT load to AMD in two phases, starting in January 2026 and completing by May 2026.
The initial term runs 10 years and carries an expected contract value of $311 million, with three five-year extensions potentially bringing total revenue to $1 billion.
AMD also holds an option to expand by 75 MW and a right of first refusal for an additional 100 MW, which would bring its total footprint at Rockdale to 200 MW. Riot estimates retrofit capital expenditures for the initial deployment at $89.8 million, or $3.6 million per MW, and expects the lease to contribute roughly $25 million in net operating income per year.
Riot’s improved land capabilities
Riot now owns more than 1,100 acres and 1.7 gigawatts of fully approved power capacity across its two Texas sites, Rockdale and Corsicana, roughly 100 miles apart.
The company positions its portfolio within the “Texas Triangle,” covering Austin, Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio, a major U.S. data center hub.
Chief Executive Jason Les said the AMD agreement validates Riot’s infrastructure and development capabilities, and marks a turning point in its strategy to repurpose bitcoin mining assets for high-performance computing and AI workloads. The company said began evaluating its sites for AI and HPC applications less than a year ago.
The company said it plans to continue converting power at Rockdale and Corsicana for non-mining tenants, pursuing further development and leasing opportunities.
Many Americans remain unaware of a troubling reality that is deeply consequential to our daily lives. Buried within the obscure corners of the periodic table are elements that are essential to our modern economy and national security. These elements, known as critical minerals, are indispensable.
They’re found in everything: health and beauty products, semiconductors in our smartphones, and in the fiber optics that enable internet connectivity. Yet, disconcertingly, we are exceedingly reliant on foreign suppliers for these minerals; this dependency puts America on its back foot.
Consider gallium, used in LEDs and solar panels. Despite possessing considerable gallium resources, the U.S. has no current domestic gallium production and is 100% reliant on imports (most of which come from China). In fact, the U.S. is entirely dependent on foreign sources for at least 12 of the 54 critical minerals identified as essential by the U.S. Geological Survey. For another 29, we are over 50% reliant on non-domestic sources. Our industries — from advanced manufacturing to defense — remain susceptible to supply chain disruptions because of this, as USGS’ latest draft assessment lays out.
This was not always the case. From the 1950s to the 1980s, the United States led the world in the production and refining of rare earth elements (REEs), a subset of critical minerals. However, increased global interconnectedness, high domestic production costs, and environmental challenges contributed to a decline in domestic production. As the United States shifted focus, the People’s Republic of China aggressively invested in its REE mining technology and infrastructure, transforming itself into the world’s dominant player by the mid-1990s. Today, it’s clear that America’s lost dominance in the critical minerals sector is a path it can no longer afford.
China has recently ramped up export controls on minerals like gallium, germanium, antimony and several others. This action underscores a precarious position for the United States and its allies. In December 2024, China banned the export of these minerals to the U.S., Japan, and the Netherlands and subsequently expanded controls to include tungsten, indium, bismuth, tellurium and molybdenum. This move has severely impacted the availability of minerals for which the U.S. is significantly import-reliant.
It is within this context that the administration has made critical minerals security a key component of its energy strategy. Yet, despite these efforts, progress has remained slow because of overlapping initiatives. Intentional coordination among more than 15 federal agencies involved in mineral security could speed up opportunities.
Cohesion, coordination and a comprehensive approach could help to overcome this. A U.S. Critical Minerals Action Plan could focus on fostering a domestic renaissance in mining and processing, strengthening international cooperation, and mitigating risks while fostering a more transparent market.
First, domestic mining and processing capabilities would need to be enhanced. This could mean accelerating permitting processes, streamlining regulations, and investing in exploration and workforce development. It’s not just about digging up minerals; it’s about revitalizing the entire industry value chain, from education to innovation, to support sustainable and efficient production.
Second, international cooperation could be paramount. The U.S. may expand its role in existing multilateral arrangements and invest strategically in the critical mineral projects of allied nations. This could help diversify supply chains and reduce dependency on any single source — specifically, reducing reliance on China.
Third, the U.S. can mitigate risks by creating a well-functioning critical minerals market. This includes implementing targeted incentives to stabilize the market and encourage investment.
The considerations laid out in the U.S. Critical Minerals Action Plan are not a luxury; they are a necessity. Such a plan could serve as a blueprint for reducing American vulnerabilities, securing supply chains, and maintaining national security and economic stability. By taking concerted action now, leaders across the country can ensure that America’s future remains bright, innovative and secure.
Richard Longstaff is a managing director for Deloitte Consulting LLP.
FILE - Terraces cut into the hillside at the huge Santa Rita copper mine in Grant County, N.M., are shown in this March 1999 file photo. The Biden administration is recommending changes to a 151-year-old law that governs mining for copper, gold and other hardrock minerals on U.S.-owned lands, including making companies pay royalties on what they extract. (Richard Pipes/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)
Turkmenistan just legalized crypto mining and exchanges this year, marking a sharp policy shift for one of the world’s most closed economies and fulfilling legislation that was accepted in November, 2025.
President Serdar Berdimuhamedov signed the Law on Virtual Assets, bringing digital assets under civil law for the first time. The legislation creates a licensing regime for miners, exchanges, and custodial services overseen by the Central Bank of Turkmenistan.
Cryptocurrencies will not yet be recognized as legal tender, currency, or securities. They cannot be used to pay for goods or services. The law defines virtual assets strictly as “property or investment instruments.”
The move stands out in a country known for tight state control. Turkmenistan maintains strict internet censorship and limited access to foreign platforms. Entry rules for foreigners have long been among the world’s toughest.
The government says the law is meant to support economic development and attract foreign capital. Turkmenistan’s economy depends heavily on natural gas exports. China is its main buyer.
Authorities are also advancing a pipeline project linking Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India.
Turkmenistan’s new crypto rules
Under the new framework, both individuals and companies may mine cryptocurrencies. All miners must register with the central bank and meet technical standards. Covert mining practices, including cryptojacking, are banned.
Crypto exchanges and custodians are also permitted to operate with a license. Domestic and foreign entities may own these services, except firms linked to offshore jurisdictions.
Exchanges must enforce know-your-customer and anti–money laundering rules. Anonymous wallets and transactions are prohibited.
The law divides virtual assets into secured and unsecured categories. Secured assets are backed by underlying property. Unsecured assets include bitcoin and similar tokens. None carry payment status under Turkmen law.
Supervision will extend beyond the central bank. The Cabinet of Ministers and the Ministry of Finance and Economy will monitor compliance. Regulators retain the power to suspend or revoke licenses for violations.
The legislation passed parliament in November and came into force on January 1, 2026. It follows earlier steps toward limited digital opening. Turkmenistan introduced an electronic visa system last year to ease entry for foreigners.
Central Asia has emerged as a testing ground for crypto policy. Kazakhstan became a major bitcoin mining hub after China’s 2021 crackdown. Kazakhstan said they are preparing to establish a national cryptocurrency reserve fund worth between $500 million and $1 billion
Pakistan launched a national virtual assets authority in 2025.
Turkmenistan remains one of the least visited countries in the world. Its media environment is tightly managed. Internet access is limited.
Russia is preparing to escalate its crackdown on unregistered cryptocurrency mining, proposing criminal penalties that include forced labor and prison sentences, little more than a year after formally legalizing the industry.
The Ministry of Justice on Monday published draft amendments to the Criminal Code that would reclassify many forms of illegal crypto mining from an administrative offense into a criminal one.
The proposal comes amid widespread noncompliance with the regulatory framework that took effect in 2024, following President Vladimir Putin’s signing of mining legislation last summer.
Although mining was legalized to bring the fast-growing sector out of the shadows, authorities say most operators continue to avoid registration and taxation. Deputy Finance Minister Ivan Chebeskov said in June that only about 30% of miners had registered with the Federal Tax Service, leaving the majority operating in what officials describe as a “gray zone.”
Harsh penalties for illegal mining in Russia
Under the draft law, individuals who mine cryptocurrency without proper registration could face fines ranging from 500,000 to 1.5 million rubles, or up to two years of forced labor. Courts would also be allowed to impose up to 480 hours of compulsory labor in less severe cases.
Harsher penalties are reserved for large-scale or organized operations. Mining that generates “significant” or “especially large” income, or that involves coordinated groups, could result in fines of up to 2.5 million rubles, forced labor for up to five years, or prison sentences of similar length.
Equipment confiscation and additional financial penalties would remain possible.
Russia’s current framework distinguishes between small-scale and commercial miners. Individuals consuming less than 6,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity per month are classified as private persons and may mine without entering the special register, though they must pay personal income tax on mined cryptocurrency.
Larger commercial miners and infrastructure operators are required to register in Russia, submit monthly production reports, and comply with regional restrictions.
Authorities say enforcement has proven difficult. Illegal mining operations, often linked to electricity theft or activity in restricted regions, have continued to strain local power grids.
Regions in Russia have reported outages tied to unregistered mining, prompting temporary bans during periods of peak winter demand. Officials estimate that illegal operations consume billions of kilowatt-hours annually.
Previous measures, including fines of up to 2 million rubles and equipment seizures, have failed to curb the activity. Law enforcement actions have included arrests of utility employees accused of facilitating illegal mining and the shutdown of large-scale farms.
The draft amendments were published on Dec. 30 and are open for public consultation.
Riot Platforms opened a new $500 million at-the-market equity offering this week as the bitcoin miner reported lower November production and continued to sell a large portion of its monthly output to fund operations and expansion.
In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday, Riot said it entered into a definitive sales agreement allowing it to issue and sell up to $500 million of common stock at prevailing market prices through the Nasdaq Capital Market.
The facility replaces a prior at-the-market program established in August 2024, which Riot terminated effective Tuesday.
Under the new agreement, Riot retains discretion over the timing and volume of any share sales. The company said proceeds will be used to fund capital expenditures, potential strategic acquisitions, investments in existing and future data centers and bitcoin mining projects, as well as general corporate purposes.
The company also noted that stock buybacks could be funded with the proceeds, alongside working capital needs.
Riot’s bitcoin production
Riot sold roughly $600.5 million worth of stock under the 2024 agreement before terminating it, leaving about $149.5 million of unused capacity. The new program resets the company’s fundraising flexibility as it continues to scale infrastructure in Texas. Shares were down nearly 1% in trading Wednesday.
The capital raise comes alongside a mixed monthly operating update. The company said it produced 428 bitcoins in November, a 14% decline from the same month a year earlier.
The company attributed the year-on-year drop to higher network difficulty and planned curtailments tied to power strategy. Total bitcoin holdings stood at 19,368 at the end of November, up 70% from a year earlier, but only four bitcoins higher than in October.
Riot sold 383 bitcoins during the month, generating $37 million in net proceeds. That compares with October, when the company sold 400 bitcoins for $46 million. The average realized sale price fell sharply to $96,560 in November from $114,970 a month earlier, reflecting the pullback in bitcoin prices during late autumn trading.
At the time of writing, bitcoin was trading around $88,000, up just over 1% on the day, with retail sentiment also leaning bearish.
Riot stock remains up 24% year-to-date and 21% over the past 12 months, despite recent volatility.
Institutional analysts continue to see longer-term upside tied to Riot’s infrastructure footprint. J.P. Morgan recently forecast 45% upside for the shares through 2026, citing expectations that the company could secure a 600-megawatt colocation deal at its Corsicana site by the end of next year.
The company currently owns roughly 1.7 gigawatts of power capacity across two large-scale Texas facilities, which analysts describe as rare tier-one assets in the bitcoin mining sector.
Interhash has acquired a controlling stake in Neopool, a Bitcoin mining pool. The deal was closed during the Bitcoin MENA 2025 conference.
Neopool, launched earlier this year, has entered the top 15 global mining pools and ranks first worldwide in Daily PPS efficiency, according to miningpoolstats.stream.
Alexander Lozben, CEO of Interhash, said the company sees strong potential in Neopool and views mining pools as an undervalued part of the Bitcoin ecosystem, in a note shared with Bitcoin Magazine.
Interhash develops solutions for crypto mining and high-performance computing, focusing on sustainable infrastructure.
Neopool CEO Andrei Kapeikin said the investment provides a strategic partner to support scaling and improve mining efficiency for operations ranging from private farms to industrial-scale facilities.
Neopool has a top-15 global ranking and the highest Daily PPS efficiency, built by a team with over 100 years of combined mining and IT experience.
Earlier this month, Neopool reported record payouts of 169 BTC (around $15 million) to its miners in November 2025, reflecting rapid growth since its launch earlier this year. Ranked by miningpoolstats.stream as the most efficient pool globally, Neopool credits its performance to proprietary optimization technology, low-latency global routing, and transparent FPPS payouts with daily settlements.
CEO Andrei Kapeikin said that technical excellence and transparency, rather than just hash rate volume, drive miner value.
Hut 8 Corp. announced a sweeping AI infrastructure partnership on Wednesday with AI model developer Anthropic and compute provider Fluidstack, marking a pretty clear signal that the bitcoin miner is pivoting to a large-scale energy and data center developer.
Under the agreement, Hut 8 will develop between 245 megawatts (MW) and up to 2,295 MW of AI-focused data center capacity in the United States, beginning with a flagship project at its River Bend campus in Louisiana.
The partnership is structured across multiple tranches, creating a pathway to scale from an initial deployment to gigawatt-level infrastructure over time.
The first phase centers on a 245 MW IT deployment at River Bend, supported by roughly 330 MW of utility power. Hut 8 will develop the site, while Fluidstack will operate high-performance compute clusters for Anthropic. Construction of the initial data halls is expected to be completed by early 2027.
Beyond the initial phase, Fluidstack has secured a right of first offer for up to an additional 1,000 MW of IT capacity at River Bend, contingent on further power expansion.
A third tranche gives Hut 8 and Anthropic the option to jointly diligence and develop up to 1,050 MW of additional capacity across Hut 8’s broader development pipeline.
Financially, the River Bend project is anchored by a 15-year triple-net lease with Fluidstack valued at approximately $7 billion over the base term, with total contract value rising to roughly $17.7 billion if all renewal options are exercised.
Alphabet-owned Google is providing a financial backstop covering lease payments and certain operating obligations over the base term, underscoring the strategic importance of securing long-term AI compute capacity, per Reuters reporting.
JUST IN: #Bitcoin mining company Hut 8 just announced it partnered with Google for financial backing on a 15-year lease.
Hut 8 shares surged more than 20% in premarket trading following the announcement, extending a rally that has seen the stock rise roughly 80% year-to-date.
Investors appear to be rewarding the company’s pivot toward AI infrastructure at a time when access to power, cooling, and suitable real estate has become a bottleneck for leading model developers.
“Scaling frontier AI infrastructure is, at its core, a power challenge,” Hut 8 CEO Asher Genoot said in a statement, emphasizing the company’s “power-first” development strategy.
He added that the partnership aligns power sourcing, data center design, and compute deployment into a single integrated platform capable of operating at gigawatt scale.
For Anthropic, the deal expands an existing relationship with Fluidstack and provides a new channel for bringing capacity online as demand for advanced models continues to grow.
“Hut 8’s ability to source and deliver infrastructure at scale provides the runway necessary to continue advancing the capabilities of our models,” said James Bradbury, Anthropic’s head of compute.
The agreement also reflects a broader industry shift. Former crypto miners such as Hut 8, CoreWeave, or Bitfarms are increasingly repurposing their energy-heavy infrastructure for AI workloads as demand for Nvidia-powered compute accelerates.
While execution risk remains — particularly around power delivery timelines and construction— Hut 8’s latest deal positions it among a small but growing group of firms bridging the worlds of energy, AI, and large-scale digital infrastructure.
Hut 8 recently reduced some of its bitcoin holdings by 389 BTC during the last month, standing out among a small group of miners and corporates trimming exposure.
While some firms added modest amounts and ETF flows turned positive, the data points to a split market in which Hut 8 and a few others acted as sellers amid pressure, contrasting with disciplined treasury buyers and programmatic accumulation elsewhere.
At the time of writing, Hut 8 shares are up 17%. Earlier in pre-market trading, shares were up over 25% at times. The price per share is currently $43.75.
Hood River County, Oregon – December 16th, 2025 – This month last year, Abundant Mines quietly began to launch a feature that would go on to change how the bitcoin mining industry defines performance. Today, the company is celebrating the one-year anniversary of Hashrate Redirect, a pioneering system that ensures clients continue earning bitcoin even when their machines are offline.
For too long, mining providers have misled customers with uptime metrics that measure whether a facility has power, not whether a machine is actually hashing. A rig could be powered off, broken, or awaiting repairs and still count toward a provider’s claimed “98% uptime.” The result is lost bitcoin, lost revenue, and lost trust.
Abundant Mines set out to correct this.
“When we introduced Hashrate Redirect a year ago, we didn’t make a big announcement. We simply built the solution we wished had existed when we were clients,” said Beau Turner, Co-Founder and CEO of Abundant Mines. “Twelve months later, the results speak for themselves: our clients continue earning even when their machines are offline, and the industry standard for uptime is shifting toward truth and transparency.”
A Year of Real Results: Uptime That Actually Means Performance
Instead of measuring uptime by whether a building has power or not, Abundant Mines measures rig uptime – the percentage of time an individual machine is hashing and producing bitcoin. When a rig goes offline for repairs, RMA, or maintenance, Hashrate Redirect replaces the lost hashrate with hash from Abundant Mines’ operational fleet.
The loss of hash is tracked immediately, and the redirection happens within days, not at the end of the month or year. The result is a continuous bitcoin revenue stream for clients, even during downtime.
Over the past year, Hashrate Redirect has:
Protected clients from hours of lost earnings
Redirected hashrate for machines without interruption
Preserved significant bitcoin rewards that would otherwise have been missed.
“Hashrate Redirect is simple but powerful,” said Turner. “We give you hash, not cash. Because you’re not mining for credits or refunds, you’re here to earn bitcoin and help secure the network.”
Why Timing Matters: Capturing Bitcoin’s Full Value
Bitcoin’s value is time-sensitive. Block rewards are issued every 10 minutes, and once they’re gone, they’re gone forever. If a rig is offline during a price surge or halving cycle, the lost opportunity can compound into significant missed revenue.
By replacing hashrate continuously, not with delayed end- of -year credit, or even end-of-month credit, Abundant Mines ensures that clients capture the full earning potential of every block, especially during high-value market windows.
“With bitcoin’s price climbing and the network becoming more competitive, uptime precision isn’t just a technical detail. It is the difference between winning and falling behind,” said Turner. “Hashrate Redirect makes sure our clients stay ahead.”
Why Weekly Hashrate Matters More Than One-Time Credits
Most mining providers only offer compensation for downtime once or twice a year, often in the form of a one-time hashrate allocation or bill credit. On paper, this may seem like a fair solution. In reality, it is too little and far too late.
Bitcoin rewards are not static. They are distributed every 10 minutes, and their value changes constantly based on market price and network difficulty. If your machine is offline for weeks or months, those missed rewards cannot be recreated later – even if a provider offers you a lump sum or short burst of extra hashrate at the end of the year.
Abundant Mines takes a different approach. With Hashrate Redirect, we replace any downtime with hashrate from our personal fleet. This means you continue earning bitcoin on a rolling basis, staying aligned with market conditions and capturing opportunities in real time.
This approach matters because:
Missed blocks are missed forever. Once they’re mined, they cannot be recreated later.
Network difficulty volatility impacts rewards. Weekly redirection ensures you maximize bitcoin earnings, so that you are not punished for hashing later when difficulty has risen significantly.Compounding matters. Bitcoin earned earlier can be held, deployed, or compounded, creating significantly greater long-term value.
“Timing is everything in bitcoin mining,” said Turner. “By replacing hashrate weekly instead of issuing delayed payouts, we ensure our clients never miss the most valuable moments to earn.”
Setting a Higher Standard
One year after launch, Hashrate Redirect has become more than a feature. It is a new benchmark for performance and a reflection of Abundant Mines’ commitment to transparency, accuracy, and client protection.
“Mining should mean performance, not just power,” Turner said. “Hashrate Redirect has proven that principle for a full year, and we are only getting started.”
About Abundant Mines
Abundant Mines is a premium bitcoin mining and energy infrastructure company based in Oregon. Committed to transparency, reliability, and impact, Abundant Mines designs, builds, and operates advanced mining facilities that align energy abundance with digital value creation. Its mission is to make bitcoin mining more accessible, more dependable, and more profitable for individuals and institutions worldwide.
American Bitcoin Corp. (Nasdaq: ABTC) has entered the top 20 publicly traded bitcoin treasury companies by holdings after growing its strategic reserve to approximately 5,098 BTC as of December 14, according to company disclosures.
The Miami-based firm said its bitcoin was accumulated through a combination of in-house mining and strategic market purchases. The total includes bitcoin held in custody as well as BTC pledged as collateral for miner purchases under a supply agreement with hardware manufacturer Bitmain, per the company release.
Based on rankings from BitcoinTreasuries.net, the milestone places American Bitcoin among the largest public bitcoin holders globally, just over three months after its Nasdaq listing.
As part of its treasury reporting, the company also highlighted growth in its proprietary Satoshis Per Share (SPS) metric, which measures the amount of bitcoin attributable to each outstanding common share. As of December 8, SPS stood at 507 satoshis per share, representing a more than 17% increase in just over one month.
American Bitcoin is also introducing a new disclosure metric, Bitcoin Yield, which tracks the percentage change in SPS over a defined period. The company said the combined metrics are intended to give investors clearer insight into both per-share bitcoin exposure and how that exposure evolves over time.
“I am incredibly proud of our tremendous growth,” said Eric Trump, co-founder and chief strategy officer of American Bitcoin. “In just over three months since our Nasdaq listing, we have surged past dozens of companies — propelling us into the top 20 publicly traded bitcoin treasury companies.”
Earlier this month, American Bitcoin reported adding roughly 416 BTC in a single week, lifting holdings from approximately 4,783 BTC as of December 8.
The company said its accumulation strategy prioritizes long-term bitcoin exposure over short-term price movements, supported by an operating model designed to maximize BTC retention.
JUST IN: Trump family backed American #Bitcoin increases its BTC holdings to 5,098 BTC.
In early December, the American Bitcoin stock (ABTC) plunged more than 50% shortly after markets opened, triggering multiple trading halts and erasing months of speculative gains.
The stock fell to an intraday low of $1.75 before recovering slightly, though it remained down over 35% at the time of writing.
The sell-off followed a broader downturn in crypto markets, with bitcoin sliding into the mid-$85,000 range. Nearly $1 billion in leveraged crypto positions were liquidated the day before, worsening already fragile market conditions.
Now, with Bitcoin trading above $87,000, $ABTC shares trade down at $1.61 per share.
Bitcoin miner hash rate has experienced a significant decline since mid-October, falling sharply despite years of near-uninterrupted growth. This pullback reflects genuine bitcoin miner capitulation driven by deteriorating profitability in the face of Bitcoin’s recent price weakness. However, could this bitcoin miner shift actually provide a golden opportunity?
Bitcoin Miner Profitability
The Bitcoin network’s total computational hash rate has entered a notable downtrend since October 18th, reversing what has otherwise been a consistent multi-year climb. The hash ribbons indicator, which compares the 30-day moving average of hash rate against the 60-day moving average, has turned red, indicating miner capitulation. When the longer-term moving average crosses above the shorter-term one, it signals that miners are withdrawing computational power from the network, typically because profit margins have become too thin to justify continued operations at previous levels.
The Puell Multiple, which measures daily USD earnings for miners relative to their 365 day moving average, recently collapsed to approximately 0.67. This means miners are earning only two-thirds of their yearly average revenue. The metric reveals a concerning trend, as Bitcoin has matured and the network has grown, mining economics have become increasingly compressed.
Bitcoin Miner Revenue Under Pressure
A deeper issue lies in the composition of miner revenue. Bitcoin miners derive income from two sources: block subsidies and transaction fees. The current block subsidy stands at 3.125 BTC per block, representing the lion’s share of miner revenue. However, transaction fees, which could theoretically offset declining subsidies over time, have entered a long-term downtrend throughout this cycle. When measured in USD terms, miner fee revenue is now practically negligible compared to the block subsidy.
This creates an uncomfortable math problem. The block subsidy decreases by 50% every four years at the halving. For miner revenue to remain constant, Bitcoin’s price must reliably double every four years. This requirement becomes increasingly unrealistic as Bitcoin matures and approaches tens or hundreds of trillions in market capitalization. Within 20-30 years, the halvings would require Bitcoin prices of tens of millions of dollars per unit merely to maintain current revenue levels for miners.
Structural Hurdles for Bitcoin Miners
When block subsidies eventually decline toward zero over the coming decades, transaction fees must theoretically fill that gap. Yet the current cycle demonstrates that fee revenue is moving in the opposite direction and declining as users migrate to more efficient layer-two solutions like the Lightning Network and as on-chain transaction volume stagnates.
Layer-two scaling solutions are good for Bitcoin’s utility and lower users’ costs. Similarly, fewer on-chain transactions reducing congestion and fees is positive for accessibility. But these developments and improvements that make Bitcoin more practical as a payments layer simultaneously reduce the revenue available to secure the base layer long-term.
Conclusion: Bitcoin Miner Capitulation as Opportunity
Bitcoin miners are undoubtedly capitulating, driven by declining price action and deteriorating profit margins. For tactical traders and accumulation-minded investors, this represents a favorable window to scale into positions, particularly once the hash ribbons reversal signal emerges. History suggests such periods rarely persist without eventually producing sharp Bitcoin rallies.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions.
MicroBT, a leading developer of Bitcoin mining hardware, launched its latest WhatsMiner M70 series in at Bitcoin MENA in Abu Dhabi on Monday, according to a note shared with Bitcoin Magazine.
The event, themed “Green-Driven, Ecosystem Redefined,” brought together mining executives, strategic partners, and key clients, marking a significant step in the company’s efforts to shape a more sustainable mining industry.
Dr. Yang Zuoxing, Founder and CEO of MicroBT, opened the event with a keynote that highlighted the connection between technological leadership and long-term industry growth.
He framed the conversation around energy innovation, presenting strategies that aim to integrate renewable sources into mining operations.
Central to his remarks was an off-grid solar solution capable of 200kW output. This system, using an 800V DC supply and a “load-following-source” design, improves efficiency compared to traditional AC setups and enables uninterrupted operation.
Dr. Yang also noted the potential of hybrid energy approaches, combining gas-powered generation with careful miner selection to extend hardware lifespan and operational reliability.
Bitcoin mining efficiency
The unveiling of the WhatsMiner M70 series drew the most attention. The new line features models with power efficiencies of 14.5J/T, 13.5J/T, and 12.5J/T. These figures reflect a push to balance performance with energy use.
Following the technical presentation, MicroBT’s Sales and Marketing Director, Wright Wang, addressed the company’s ecosystem strategy. He outlined a vision that extends beyond hardware, focusing on shared-value partnerships and joint mining.
Wang highlighted the network of certified solution partners who provide expertise in cooling, energy management, and operations.
By linking these partners to clients, MicroBT positions itself not just as a supplier but as a facilitator of a connected, collaborative mining ecosystem.
The launch included presentations from a range of partners, including HeatCore, HashHouse, FogHashing, Giga, HashSmith, Pauway Energy, Lumen Capital, BitMars, and Luxor.
Images from Bitcoin MENA
Their contributions spanned topics from advanced cooling techniques to financial models for hashrate management. The breadth of participation underscored the interdependence of the modern mining industry and highlighted the role of collaboration in driving innovation.
Tether’s VP of Energy and Mining, Giv Zanganeh, also addressed the audience on the topic of redefining the Bitcoin mining ecosystem. His presence reflected growing confidence in MicroBT’s approach and signaled an emerging alignment between hardware innovation, energy management, and financial infrastructure.
MicroBT’s WhatsMiner M70 launch illustrates a shift in the industry. As miners face increasing pressure to manage energy use and operational risks, the company is betting on a model that combines technical innovation with strategic partnerships.
The launch in Abu Dhabi positions MicroBT as a company seeking to influence both the technology and the practices of Bitcoin mining, framing sustainability and ecosystem growth as inseparable goals.
The value of Bitcoin has had its ups and downs since its inception in 2013, but its recent skyrocket in value has created renewed interest in this virtual currency. The rapid growth of this alternative currency has dominated headlines and ignited a cryptocurrency boom that has consumers everywhere wondering how to get a slice of the Bitcoin pie. For those who want to join the craze without trading traditional currencies like U.S. dollars (i.e., fiat currency), a process called Bitcoin mining is an entry point. However, Bitcoin mining poses a number of security risks that you need to know.
What Is Bitcoin Mining?
Mining for Bitcoin is like mining for gold—you put in the work and you get your reward. But instead of back-breaking labor, you earn the currency with your time and computer processing power. Miners, as they are called, essentially maintain and secure Bitcoin’s decentralized accounting system. Bitcoin transactions are recorded in a digital ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoin miners update the ledger by downloading a special piece of software that allows them to verify and collect new transactions. Then, they must solve a mathematical puzzle to secure access to add a block of transactions to the chain. In return, they earn Bitcoins, as well as a transaction fee.
What Are Bitcoin Security Risks?
As the digital currency has matured, Bitcoin mining has become more challenging. In the beginning, a Bitcoin user could mine on their home computer and earn a good amount of the digital currency, but these days the math problems have become so complicated that it requires a lot of expensive computing power. This is where the risks come in. Since miners need an increasing amount of computer power to earn Bitcoin, some have started compromising public Wi-Fi networks so they can access users’ devices.
One example of this security breach happened at a coffee shop in Buenos Aires, which was infected with malware that caused a 10-second delay when logging in to the cafe’s Wi-Fi network. The malware authors used this time delay to access the users’ laptops for mining. In addition to public Wi-Fi networks, millions of websites are being compromised to access users’ devices for mining. When an attacker loads mining software onto devices without the owner’s permission, it’s called a cryptocurrency mining encounter or cryptojacking.
It’s estimated that 50 out of every 100,000 devices have encountered a cryptocurrency miner. Cryptojacking is a widespread problem and can slow down your device; though, that’s not the worst that can happen. Utility costs are also likely to go through the roof. A device that is cryptojacked could have 100 percent of its resources used for mining, causing the device to overheat, essentially destroying it.
What Are Some Bitcoin Privacy Tips?
Now that you know a little about mining and the Bitcoin security risks associated with it, here are some tips to keep your devices safe as you monitor the cryptocurrency market:
Avoid public Wi-Fi networks: These networks often aren’t secured, opening your device and information up to a number of threats.
Use a VPN: If you’re away from your secure home or work network, consider using a virtual private network (VPN). A VPN is a piece of software that gives you a secure connection to the Internet, so that third parties cannot intercept or read your data. A product like McAfee+ can help safeguard your online privacy no matter where you go.
Secure your devices: New Bitcoin threats, security concerns, and malware are emerging all of the time. Protect your devices and information with comprehensive security software
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