Public bitcoin miners have lost ground: hashrate plunged 21% amid the exodus to AI
The public mining market is undergoing a tectonic shift. Over the past three quarters, the combined realized hashrate of public companies (excluding Bitdeer) has declined by 21.2% — from 368.3 EH/s in Q4 2025 to 319.0 EH/s in Q2 2026. This is not just a correction, but a systemic restructuring of business models.
The key driver is the massive migration of capacity from Bitcoin mining to high-performance computing (HPC) and AI infrastructure. The network's own metrics have declined much more gently: the average quarterly hashrate fell from 1,071 EH/s to 957 EH/s, or only 10.6%. The gap between the dynamics of public companies and the network is precisely driven by Bitdeer, which has grown its hashrate by 44% — to 63 EH/s.
The other players are clearly winding down mining faster than new capacity can be brought online. This creates a temporary vacuum that is partially filled by private miners and pools.
Reasons for the decline: economics vs. AI
The numbers speak for themselves. Core Scientific earned $136.7 million in Q2 from colocation and AI hosting versus a meager $27.5 million from mining. TeraWulf generated $31.9 million from HPC leasing (71% of revenue), while Bitcoin mining brought in only $12.8 million.
The transition does not look uniform. Riot Platforms still depends on mining ($113.7 million versus $23.2 million from data centers), while Bitdeer earns $197.1 million from its core segments and only $14 million from AI cloud. Hut 8 and MARA show a modest contribution from computing services, while Cipher and Keel Infrastructure have not yet recorded any HPC revenue at all.
This decline is a direct consequence of the weak mining economics in the current cycle and fierce competition for capital and electricity with AI workloads. For comparison: after China's mining ban in June 2021, the network hashrate fell to 57.5 EH/s but recovered by December. Today we are seeing not an external shock, but a structural outflow of capital.
Recall that in August 2026, miners' revenue from fees collapsed to a decade low, further exacerbating pressure on margins.
My analysis: We are witnessing not capitulation, but evolution. Public miners are voting with their wallets for AI, and this is rational. However, if the network hashrate continues to stagnate and difficulty remains high, we could see market consolidation and the exit of weak players. Bitcoin will survive this, but the structure of its mining will change forever.