TLDR Tech / Crypto
Bitcoin Miners Losing $19k Per BTC as Difficulty Drops
Bitcoin miners are producing BTC at an average cost of $88,000 per coin against a spot price near $69,200, generating a per-block loss of roughly $19,000 (21%) as of mid-March. Oil prices exceeding $100 per barrel, compounded by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and its disruption to roughly 20% of global oil and gas flows, have pushed electricity costs higher, disproportionately hitting the 8-10% of global hashrate concentrated in Middle Eastern energy markets. The network responded with a 7.76% difficulty drop to 133.79 trillion, its second-largest negative adjustment of the year, while hashrate fell to approximately 920 EH/s from a 2025 peak of 1 ZH/s and average block times stretched to 12 minutes 36 seconds. Major mining operators are accelerating pivots into AI and high-performance computing to offset losses, as hashprice near $33.30/PH/s/day leaves most hardware operating at or below breakeven.
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