Bitcoin: BTC mining profitability collapses, accelerating the shift toward AI

An unprecedented drop in Bitcoin mining difficulty. The Bitcoin network's mining difficulty hit an all-time high of nearly 156 T (trillions) at the end of October 2025, before starting a steady decline. By September 1, 2026, it had fallen to approximately 125.8 T after ten consecutive months of decreases [...] The article Bitcoin: BTC mining profitability collapses, accelerating the shift toward AI appeared first on Cryptoast.

The Bitcoin mining sector is currently navigating a period of unprecedented turbulence. After hitting an all-time high of 156 T in October 2025, the network mining difficulty has seen a steady decline, settling at approximately 125.8 T in September 2026. This ten-month streak of uninterrupted decline reflects severe economic pressure, further exacerbated by the drop in the price of BTC over the same period. Despite a recent rebound in the asset's price, the hashprice — the miners' daily revenue — is struggling to stabilize, currently hovering below $40 after nearly hitting a critical low of $28.30 last June.

Q2 2026 financial reports illustrate the paradox faced by industry players: while companies like MARA or Riot have increased their bitcoin production, their revenue has plummeted, hit hard by rising operational costs. For many operators, the break-even cost of one BTC, including infrastructure depreciation, now far exceeds its selling price. This margin erosion has forced publicly traded miners to offload massive amounts of assets, liquidating over 32,000 BTC in the first quarter of 2026 to ensure their financial survival.

Faced with a precarious business model, miners are making a strategic pivot toward artificial intelligence. Infrastructure dedicated to computing power is being progressively redirected toward long-term contracts with tech giants, as seen in the partnerships signed between Cipher and AWS or TeraWulf and Anthropic. Some players, such as Keel Infrastructure, have even chosen to completely dismantle their mining operations to pivot entirely into becoming AI data center providers, marking a structural shift away from their original purpose.

This transition is permanently reshaping the crypto landscape: for the first time, the network hashrate is no longer growing in lockstep with the price of Bitcoin. Once allocated to AI, energy and hardware capacities do not return to the blockchain. This trend is further intensified by the prospect of the 2028 halving, which will once again cut block rewards in half. In a climate where transaction fees only marginally offset the loss in revenue, the stability offered by the artificial intelligence market now appears to be a necessary lifeline against the inherent unpredictability of cryptocurrency mining.