Bitcoin's floor price sits at $54,939, what miners estimate it costs to produce each coin. The network is holding above that mark, but the real pressure is coming from elsewhere. Since the halving cut block rewards to 3.125 BTC, miners face tougher economics than any moment since 2020. They're responding by turning their hardware toward something completely different.
Major public miners, CleanSpark, Core Scientific, and Hut 8 among them, have started redirecting compute power into artificial intelligence contracts. AI leases lock in fixed-rate income. Bitcoin mining revenues fluctuate with price and network difficulty. Predictable cash beats volatility. CoinShares analysts are tracking the shift and expect AI contracts to become the majority revenue stream for some public miners by year-end.
Hashrate drops for the first time in six years
Bitcoin's hashrate peaked at 995 EH/s in April 2026, nearly touching the 1 ZH/s psychological barrier. It's now settled around 959 EH/s. What's striking is the quarterly decline. The network hasn't experienced that since 2018. Not because of a price crash or regulatory action. Miners simply walked away to chase AI margins. The first quarterly drop in six years came from rational economic choice, not forced exit.
The production cost floor creates its own gravity. When price approaches the cost-to-produce line, marginal operators shut down, network difficulty adjusts lower, and remaining miners see margins improve. It's a self-correcting mechanism built into Bitcoin's protocol. But that mechanism assumes miners stay. Now some are leaving anyway, just not because they're unprofitable. They're choosing greener pastures in AI compute.
What's next for hashrate growth
CoinShares forecasts hashrate could reach 1.8 ZH/s by year-end if pricing holds. The growth trajectory, though, will likely be slower than previous cycles. The AI reallocation is a structural headwind. Miners aren't exiting Bitcoin. They're splitting their rigs, running both operations, or gradually pivoting portfolios toward the more stable AI revenue model.
Bitcoin trading at $54,939 gives miners cover to stay online. The price floor holds. But the mining industry itself is fragmenting, with compute horsepower moving in two directions at once.
This material is informational only and does not constitute financial advice or investment recommendation.
