A significant drop in the network’s computing power is being driven by a technological rival.
Major Bitcoin miners are increasingly unplugging their mining rigs and repurposing their data centers for AI compute.
For years, miners chased BTC rewards.
Now some are chasing AI compute instead.Hashrate dipping = major signal 🚨 pic.twitter.com/xG9rkuVQ4P
— Maartunn (@JA_Maartun) March 23, 2026
The great divergence
Historically, Bitcoin’s hashrate (the purple/pink band) and its price (the white line) have moved in tandem. Mining industry players that plug in to capture the profits typically the hashrate higher.
Recently, a massive spike pushed the network near an unprecedented 1.2K EH/s in early 2026.
However, a sharp and dramatic plunge in the hashrate is clearly visible.
Now that Bitcoin prices are under severe strain, miners are capitulating and pivoting to AI.
The profit margins for mining cannot compete with the astronomical premiums tech companies are willing to pay for AI computing power.
It requires massive amounts of electricity and advanced cooling infrastructure to train and run large language models (LLMs). These are the two things that Bitcoin possesses in abundance.
Publicly traded mining giants like Core Scientific, Bit Digital, and Iris Energy have been retrofitting their facilities to house high-end GPUs for AI clients.
Bitcoin mining currently generates between $57 and $129 in revenue per megawatt. For comparison, AI data centers can produce $200 to $500 per megawatt using the exact same power capacity.
According to late 2025 and early 2026 reports from Quantum Foundry and Disruption Banking, major miners are locking in massive long-term contracts. For instance, IREN (formerly Iris Energy) has bagged a $9.7 billion AI cloud service agreement with Microsoft. Meanwhile, Hut 8 signed a $7 billion AI infrastructure deal with Google.
In Wall Street’s view, these are longer purely crypto miners. Instead, they are being valued as “critical energy infrastructure assets” needed to fuel the AI boom.
