Bitcoin Mining's Cash Cost Was $75,500 in Q2 as Hashrate Fell 27%

The weighted average ex-tax cash cost of producing one bitcoin across the listed mining sector was about $75,500 in the second quarter of 2026, according to CoinShares. Bitcoin closed that quarter at $58,400. The same report says Q2 pushed the listed sector below cash breakeven in aggregate CoinShares Q2 mining report.

For anyone holding BTC, the useful part is what that arithmetic changes and what it does not. Blocks keep arriving and the network keeps securing itself, because the miners still running have newer machines and cheaper power. What changed is who those miners are, and what else they can do with the electricity they buy. Older rigs went dark. Several listed operators are leaving mining for AI data centres. The fee income meant to top up the block subsidy is still close to nothing.

One number is worth holding onto before the history. Hash price, the revenue a miner earns per unit of computing power, has recovered to a level that covers cash costs for most operators. That is a recovery from a record low, not a return to how the business looked a year ago.

The Drop Was 27%, Then It Stopped

CoinShares puts the network's peak at roughly 1,160 EH/s in early October 2025. Bitcoin had crossed 1 ZH/s for the first time in late August 2025. The trough came at 850 EH/s in early February 2026, a peak-to-trough fall of about 27%. It was the first six-month hashrate decline since China's ban in the first half of 2021. The closest precedent on record is that ban, which drove a 25.9% decline.

The contraction was front-loaded. CoinShares' Q1 report says the 30-day average hashrate fell 5.8% quarter on quarter in Q1 2026, the sharpest contraction in several quarters. An estimated 252 EH/s of capacity went offline as older machines stopped being profitable Q1 report. By 13 July, hashrate was 17.5% below its 1 January level of 1,066 EH/s, at 879 EH/s. The network then steadied. The seven-day average was about 920 EH/s in mid August. Difficulty sat at 127.48T after a 0.99% upward adjustment on 8 August. That is roughly 18% below the record 155.97T set on 29 October 2025.

What a Unit of Hash Actually Earns

Hash price peaked at about $63 per PH/s per day in July 2025. It fell to $35 to $37 by November, then set successive record monthly lows: $32.31 in February, $31.27 in March and $27.70 in June 2026. Hashrate Index priced it at $39.71 per PH/s per day in its 13 October analysis Hashrate Index.

Three things pushed it to that floor at once, per CoinShares: record difficulty, a BTC price about 31% below its October 2025 high, and transaction fees stuck below 1% of block rewards. Fees averaged about 0.018 BTC per block. Fees have not come back. CoinShares' Q2 report says they stayed persistently below 1% of block rewards. The block subsidy is doing nearly all the work of paying miners.

The cost side explains who quit. At $39.71, Hashrate Index's energy hash price puts fleets under 14 J/TH at about $135 per MWh. S21-class hardware sits at about $98 per MWh at 8 cents per kWh. CoinShares put it plainer in its Q1 report. At current levels, mid-generation hardware needs power below 5 cents per kWh to stay cash-profitable. Current-generation fleets below 15 J/TH still keep a meaningful margin at typical industrial electricity rates.

The Exits Have Price Tags

• Core Scientific paid $41.9 million in Q2 to terminate its agreement with Block's Proto division, cancelling about 15 EH/s of next-generation 3nm chip deliveries. Its self-mining gross margin came in at -56%. Management said it runs its remaining rigs only to offset contractual power obligations while sites convert.
• Keel, formerly Bitfarms, has shut down Bitcoin mining. Its Q3 mining revenue will be zero. It sold 1,085 BTC for $75 million at an average price of $69,100.
• At least 35 EH/s is scheduled to leave the publicly listed mining cohort as IREN and Cipher complete their exits.
• IREN's own 10-K says its transition from mining to AI will be substantially complete by 31 December 2026. Its AI cloud revenue of $70.5 million overtook mining revenue of $66.7 million for the first time.

AI Earns Three Times More Per Megawatt

CoinShares estimates AI generates annualised profits of about $1.5 million per megawatt for miners, against $0.5 million for mining. Hashrate Index makes the same point from the other side. Three kinds of compute now compete for the same power. Per megawatt-hour, a Zcash ASIC earns six to eight times what a Bitcoin ASIC does. An H100 beats both when it is fully rented.

That is the competitive position Bitcoin mining is defending, and it is not a price problem that a single good month fixes.

What Would Push Hash Price Back Over $40

CoinShares' Q1 report said a sustained recovery above $40 would require a BTC price rally towards $100,000 by the end of the year, one that outpaces continued hashrate growth. It expected further capitulation among higher-cost operators in H1 2026 unless the price recovered materially. Half of that has happened. Hash price has since recovered to around $38 as Bitcoin rebounded to about $77,000, lifting most operators back above cash breakeven, according to the Q2 report.

Difficulty, though, is still about 18% below its October 2025 record. The network has less capacity to absorb another squeeze than it did a year ago. A mid-October difficulty adjustment was being projected in market commentary when this was published. The outcome of that retarget was not confirmed. The exact live hashrate reading could not be verified at its primary data source. CoinShares' most recent stated figure was about 920 EH/s in mid August.