1 day ago
1 
The network was running at 1,066 EH/s at the close of Q1, falling to 1,004 EH/s by Q2 – a decline that might seem modest in isolation, but arrives against a backdrop of broader industry stress: Bitcoin prices are sitting around 50% below their 2025 peak, and mining revenues have hit a 14-month low.
As per the numbers from Hashrate Index, the United States holds 37.4% of global hashrate – equivalent to 375 EH/s – followed by Russia at 16.9% and China at 12%. Together, these three countries account for roughly 65% of the entire network’s computing power, despite operating under radically different regulatory environments and, in some cases, active political hostility toward one another.
The US lead is not without its vulnerabilities. In late January, Winter Storm Fern forced widespread shutdowns across Texas and other states, temporarily pulling network-wide hashrate down by an estimated 30 to 40%. The mechanism is familiar: American miners operating under demand-response agreements with grid operators are contractually obligated to curtail power during peak load events.
On the cost side, tariffs on imported ASIC hardware have climbed from 2.6% to 21.6% since early 2025, and proposed 125% levies on Chinese goods could squeeze operator margins further. The industry’s response has been a pivot toward AI and high-performance computing infrastructure, with announced contracts in that space now exceeding $70 billion.
Russia and China: Resilience Through Different Means
Russia has consolidated its second-place position by leaning on natural gas, hydropower, and a Siberian climate that keeps cooling costs low. Western sanctions and financial isolation have not pushed the country out of the industry – if anything, they appear to have accelerated domestic infrastructure development.
China officially bans Bitcoin mining, yet a 12% market share is difficult to dismiss. Operations continue primarily in Sichuan, where seasonal hydropower is cheap, and in Xinjiang, though regulatory raids in the latter have produced measurable, if temporary, hashrate dips. Chinese mining is dispersed and extralegal, which makes it simultaneously resilient and unpredictable.
New Players With Cheap Water
The more revealing story in the data is not the top three, but the growth at the margins. Paraguay has reached a 4.3% market share – 43 EH/s – drawing almost entirely on the Itaipú Dam, one of the largest hydroelectric facilities in the world. Electricity prices there run around $0.033 per kWh, roughly three times cheaper than the US average. Companies including Marathon Digital and HIVE have made multi-million dollar commitments in the country, and the government has stated intentions to double mining capacity by the end of 2026.
Ethiopia sits at 2.5% and is climbing, monetizing underutilized hydroelectric capacity. The risk there is equally visible: political instability is a genuine long-term threat to the capital already deployed. The UAE and Oman, each at 3%, are positioning themselves as state-backed hubs, combining subsidized energy with advanced immersion cooling technology.
Washington Wants Its Mining Back
On March 30, 2026, Republican Senators Cynthia Lummis and Bill Cassidy introduced the Mined in America Act, a bill that would push Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturing back onto US soil and formally codify a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve under the Treasury Department – funded through seized assets, with no new taxpayer spending.
The concern driving the legislation is not abstract. Approximately 97% of the specialized machines used to mine Bitcoin globally are manufactured by companies with ties to China. For a network that the US currently leads with a 37% hashrate share, that hardware dependency is increasingly being framed as a national security vulnerability rather than a supply chain inconvenience. If foreign governments were to restrict or cut off access to that equipment, American mining operations would have no domestic alternative to turn to.
Proponents of the bill project a $30.6 billion GDP boost and more than 54,000 jobs created by 2028 if domestic manufacturing takes hold. Whether those numbers hold up under scrutiny is a separate question – but the direction of travel in Washington is clear. Bitcoin mining is no longer being treated purely as a private sector energy business. It is being repositioned, at least rhetorically, as strategic national infrastructure.
What’s Happening to the Hardware
2026 is shaping up as the year older mining equipment gets forced out. Machines older than the Antminer S19 XP series are becoming unprofitable wherever electricity prices exceed $0.06/kWh, and they are being retired at an accelerating pace as newer, more efficient hardware takes their place.
There is also a structural shift in who participates in mining. Solo home operations are giving way to cloud mining platforms and hashrate trading markets, where smaller investors can gain exposure without purchasing hardware. The entry barrier falls, but real profitability remains concentrated among operators with access to cheap, reliable power -which is precisely why the geographic story matters as much as the quarterly numbers.
As for network security: short-term hashrate drops do technically make a 51% attack less expensive, but the geographic distribution of mining and the speed at which the network recovers from disruptions continue to limit systemic risk. The long-term concentration question around the top three countries remains a more substantive concern than any single quarterly dip.
The information provided in this article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, or trading advice. Coindoo.com does not endorse or recommend any specific investment strategy or cryptocurrency. Always conduct your own research and consult with a licensed financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
The post Bitcoin Mining Loses Momentum: New Data Shows Hashrate Decline and a Shifting Global Order appeared first on Coindoo.
Bengali (Bangladesh) · 
English (United States) ·