Bitcoin (BTC) Hashrate Recovers 11.7% From August Low Despite Miner AI Pivot

Back to 1,004 EH/s

Bitcoin (BTC) mining is splitting into two camps, and the network's computing power is coming through the split intact. A weekly report from on-chain analytics firm CryptoQuant, released on October 22 under the title “Miners Pivot, Hashrate Holds,” finds listed miners producing sharply fewer coins as they convert sites to AI data centers, even as total network hashrate climbs back quickly. Hashrate measures how much computing power secures the proof-of-work network, and the 30-day average hit an all-time high of 1,101 EH/s on November 11, 2025. It then slid to 899 EH/s by August 6, 2026, an 18.3% drawdown and the deepest correction since China barred crypto mining in 2021. Capacity has returned fast since that floor: the October 20, 2026 reading stands at 1,004 EH/s, 11.7% above the August low and 8.8% short of the record. For a proof-of-work chain, that capacity is the security budget: the more computing power defends the ledger, the more it costs an attacker to rewrite its history. Timing matters as much as the level. The same report records that the Bitcoin (BTC) price bottomed near $59,000 on June 30, and the hashrate did not find its floor until roughly five weeks later, the pattern expected when rigs are switched back on and expanded once Bitcoin mining economics improve. Read together, the two curves describe an industry repricing its assets rather than a network in retreat.

Five Miners Cut Output 47% for AI

Where the leaving capacity goes, and who replaces it, fills in the picture. Of the ten listed miners CryptoQuant tracks, five, IREN, Core Scientific, Bitfarms, TeraWulf and Cipher, are steering capacity toward AI and high-performance computing. Their combined output between January 1 and October 19, 2026 fell from 13,263 Bitcoin (BTC) to 7,075 BTC year over year, a 47% drop, with IREN mining 51% less, Core Scientific 54% less and TeraWulf 56% less. All five have signed AI and HPC contracts with buyers including Microsoft, AWS and CoreWeave; the announced totals exceed $50 billion, a multi-year figure rather than annual revenue. The five that stayed in mining, MARA, CleanSpark, Riot, HIVE and American Bitcoin, lifted production 16% over the same span, with HIVE up 99% and American Bitcoin expanding sharply as well. Across all ten, output slipped only 8.9%. The group's daily production fell from roughly 114 BTC in the first quarter to about 91 BTC recently, equal to some 20% of daily network issuance on the post-halving schedule of 3.125 BTC per block, or about 450 new BTC a day. Concentration has risen with it: MARA, CleanSpark and Riot now account for 69% of the ten companies' output. Against that retrenchment, the network added roughly 105 EH/s of capacity after August 6, and the report credits private operators, companies outside the United States and state-linked players running newer-generation rigs with filling the gap.

The Network Absorbed 105 EH/s

The useful signal is not that miners are leaving, but that their share was never the network. Roughly 105 EH/s added since August 6 shows unlisted and non-US operators absorbing the capacity the listed five released, which is the adaptation a decentralized chain is built for. Hashrate also lags price, having bottomed about five weeks after the June 30 floor, so the recovery confirms improved mining margins rather than predicting the next move. Before drawing a directional call, the report's own checklist applies: miner transfers to exchanges, changes in held Bitcoin (BTC), ETF flows and spot demand; one published house view already frames the constraint, pointing to the 68.8% December hike odds capping upside. Our Bitcoin technical analysis page tracks the price side live.