Bitcoin Miners Face Squeeze as Hash Price Nears Break-Even Levels

Bitcoin’s mining industry is feeling the strain as profitability plunges to its lowest point in months, forcing many operators to weigh shutdowns or strategic ￰0￱ Takeaways: Bitcoin’s hash price has dropped to around $42 per PH/s, nearing break-even levels that threaten smaller mining ￰1￱ energy costs and reduced block rewards are squeezing margins, prompting miners and manufacturers to pivot toward ￰2￱ firms like Cipher Mining and IREN are diversifying, securing multi-billion-dollar AI infrastructure deals with Amazon and ￰3￱ sector’s key performance metric, the hash price, or daily revenue per unit of computational power, has fallen to around $42 per petahash per second (PH/s), edging closer to the break-even threshold that could drive smaller miners ￰4￱ Hash Price Nears $40 as Miners Struggle to Stay Profitable The hash price has been in a steady downtrend since July, when it briefly touched $62 per PH/s, according to ￰5￱ the metric now hovering near $40, analysts warn that weaker miners are on the brink, while even larger firms are tightening spending to preserve margins amid high power costs and declining Bitcoin ￰6￱ impact extends across the mining supply ￰7￱ providers are reporting slower sales as struggling miners delay or cancel ￰8￱ selling machines or services priced in Bitcoin are facing additional losses following the sharp drop in BTC’s value after the October market ￰9￱ such as Bitdeer have turned to self-mining to offset declining hardware demand, while others are refocusing their business models toward AI and high-performance computing (HPC), sectors offering stronger margins than traditional ￰10￱ shift marks an accelerating trend as the economics of Bitcoin mining become increasingly ￰11￱ April’s Bitcoin halving, which cut block rewards from 6.25 BTC to 3.125 BTC, competition has intensified further.

"How Bitcoin Mining Can Power Water Desalination" Could see this catching on and being huge in many water-needy parts of the world ￰12￱ — Alex Gladstein (@gladstein) October 20, 2025 The Bitcoin network’s total hashrate has surged past 1 zetahash per second (ZH/s) for the first time, pushing electricity and hardware requirements higher than ￰13￱ a hobby run on personal computers, Bitcoin mining now demands industrial-scale operations using advanced ASIC ￰14￱ as profit margins thin, several mining firms are finding greater stability in the AI infrastructure ￰15￱ October, Cipher Mining signed a $5.5 billion, 15-year deal with Amazon Web Services to provide computing power, while IREN inked a $9.7 billion agreement with Microsoft in November for GPU-based AI ￰16￱ Lawmaker Calls for National Security Probe Into China-Linked Bitcoin Mining Firms In September, Congressman Zachary Nunn asked the US Treasury to launch a national security review of Chinese firms Bitmain and Cango, citing concerns over their expanding presence in the US crypto mining ￰17￱ a letter sent to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Nunn pointed to opaque ownership structures, potential state ties, and risks to national infrastructure as grounds for a Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) investigation.

Bitmain, which dominates over 80% of the global Bitcoin mining hardware market, and Nasdaq-listed Cango have both denied any merger plans. Still, Nunn raised alarms over their growth strategies in the US, complex financing arrangements, and possible involvement in US energy ￰18￱ concerns follow a $300 million equipment deal between Bitmain’s US arm and a Trump-linked mining ￰19￱ companies have stated they comply with US laws and have no ties to foreign governments.