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Magyar28 Oct 2026
Bitcoin hash rate has climbed back to roughly 1.06 ZH/s, about 6.5% below its all-time high, even as listed miners like Riot and IREN redirect power to AI clients. Difficulty is projected to rise another 5% to 6% on October 29, its second straight increase.
Bitcoin TradeReviewed News Desk
Bitcoin hash rate is back within about 6.5% of its all-time high, according to Glassnode data cited by BeInCrypto. The 14-day moving average now sits near 1.06 zettahashes per second (ZH/s), even though several of the largest public miners are moving power and capital into artificial intelligence hosting.
From the longest drawdown to a near record
The metric peaked near 1.135 ZH/s in late 2025, then fell about 22% between October 2025 and February 2026. The slide stalled around 870 EH/s, a floor that was retested in June and again in August. Each test held, and the latest move higher is the steepest since the February rebound.
Price has not kept pace. BeInCrypto put BTC at $79,774, roughly 37% below its $126,210 peak, while hash rate is only single digits away from its own record. On-chain analyst Will Clemente flagged the gap on X, noting that hash rate is “quietly almost back at record highs” despite the AI pivots.
Difficulty heads for a second straight jump
Mining difficulty rose 5.92% to 140.58 trillion on October 16, per mempool data, and another increase of roughly 5% to 6% is projected for October 29. Back-to-back rises of that size are unusual in 2026, when most adjustments were cuts. If the projection holds, difficulty would land around 148T to 150T, about 4% to 5% below the 155.97T record set in late 2025.
Who is replacing the AI-bound miners
The AI shift is real. Riot Platforms disclosed a 20-year, 191 MW hosting deal at its Rockdale, Texas campus worth $9.1 billion, or up to $16.1 billion with extensions. IREN plans to retire about 23.2 EH/s of mining capacity by December 31. BlocksBridge Consulting estimates public miners’ realized hash rate fell 15% in the first half of 2026, while disclosed AI and HPC contracts across listed miners exceed $70 billion.
The gap is being filled elsewhere. Bitdeer’s self-mining hash rate reached 82.3 EH/s in September, up from 35 EH/s a year earlier. Retired rigs are reportedly being bought by smaller operators with cheap power, Texas fleets returned after the grid’s summer peak, and Hashrate Index data showed Ethiopia up 129%, Paraguay up 54% and Oman up 28% year over year in the first quarter.
What it means for traders
A near-record hash rate means attacking the network is about as expensive as it has ever been, and CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju called the recovery an indirect bullish signal. Miner economics are tighter though: hashprice dropped to about $36 per PH per day on October 25, roughly 11% lower in a month, and rising difficulty squeezes margins further unless BTC climbs. Watch miner selling and the IREN capacity exit in December as possible sources of supply pressure.
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This article is for information only and is not financial advice. Source: BeInCrypto, citing Glassnode, mempool, BlocksBridge Consulting and Hashrate Index.
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