Bitcoin hashrate reaches seven-month high despite AI shift by miners

Hashrate climbs above 1 zettahash per second

Bitcoin's seven-day average hashrate has recovered above 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s), equal to 1,000 exahashes per second (EH/s). This is the highest level since March 3.

Hashrate measures the computing power used to secure the Bitcoin network. Despite this recovery, mining difficulty is rising. It increased 5.92% on Oct. 16, and is projected to rise another 5.16% at the next adjustment. Together, that would be about an 11.4% increase across two adjustments.

AI shift takes capacity offline but competition remains

Many publicly traded miners are shifting capacity toward artificial intelligence (AI) workloads. According to BlocksBridge Consulting, this led to a 23% decline in publicly traded miners' realized hashrate and a 52% quarterly increase in their reported AI and high-performance computing revenue.

BlocksBridge estimated the displaced capacity represented roughly $1.5 billion in mining hardware. But the hashrate recovery shows that miners still operating on Bitcoin are not getting much relief from this shift.

Smaller miners may fill the gap

Some of the lost capacity may be coming back through smaller and mid-sized miners buying used equipment from larger operators. For example, Sazmining advertises secondhand Antminer S21 XP machines that buyers can deploy through hosting facilities in Paraguay and Texas.

For miners with access to cheaper electricity, buying used machines could be more economical than new equipment. However, it's not clear how much of the equipment sold comes from publicly traded miners, or how much has returned to the network.

Facts and opinions differ on meaning

Some industry observers see rising hashrate as a positive sign. CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju has argued it reflects stronger security and better fundamentals as a store of value. This is an opinion, not a confirmed fact from the supplied material.

Sources

• Cointelegraph

Read also: CryptoQuant CEO sees rising Bitcoin hashrate as indirect signal from institutions