Each mined coin loses $20,000! Bitcoin miners are fleeing, and the "mining difficulty" has dropped by 7.8%.

The Bitcoin mining industry is facing severe challenges. With the price of coins falling, energy prices soaring, and geopolitical risks escalating, many miners are caught in a situation of “digging deeper into losses.”
Data from the on-chain data platform Checkonchain’s “Difficulty Regression Model” (which estimates average production costs through network difficulty and energy input) shows that as of March 13, the cost to mine one Bitcoin has surged to $88,000.
However, at the time of writing, the spot price of Bitcoin is fluctuating around $68,000. This means that for every Bitcoin produced, miners must absorb nearly $20,000 in losses; converted, this translates to a 21% loss for each block mined.
Cost Storm and Geopolitical Pressure: Oil Prices Exceed $100 as a Death Knell
Since Bitcoin plummeted from its high of $126,000 in October of last year, breaking through the $70,000 barrier, the profit margins for miners have been consistently compressed; the recent outbreak of conflict in Iran has become the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
International oil prices have breached the $100 per barrel mark, directly driving up the massive electricity costs required for mining. As a result, approximately 8% to 10% of the global hash rate, located in regions highly sensitive to Middle Eastern energy supply, is bearing the brunt of the impact.

Adding insult to injury, commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which controls about 20% of global oil and gas transport, is nearly at a standstill. Coupled with U.S. President Donald Trump’s “48-hour ultimatum,” threatening to attack Iranian power plants, the various geopolitical chain reactions have made miners’ situations even more precarious.
Network Data Sounds the Alarm: Hash Rate Decline, Block Time Delays
Signs of miners exiting the market are gradually reflected in network indicators.
Bitcoin mining difficulty was recently adjusted down by 7.76% to 133.79 T. This marks the second-largest drop in 2026, following an 11.16% plunge in February due to the impacts of the “Fern” winter storm. Currently, Bitcoin mining difficulty has not only declined by nearly 10% since the beginning of the year but is also far below the historical high of nearly 155 T reached in November 2025.
Additionally, the total network hash rate has significantly retreated to about 920 EH/s, far short of the staggering record set in 2025 of 1 Zettahash (i.e., 1,000 EH/s).
The loss of hash rate has led to an average block time being extended to 12 minutes and 36 seconds during the previous difficulty adjustment cycle, far exceeding the original design of 10 minutes for Bitcoin.

Sell-off Wave Emerges: Not Just an Industry Crisis, but a Structural Market Risk
According to the hash rate index released by Luxor Mining Pool, the “Hashprice,” which measures expected revenue per unit of hash rate, is currently hovering around “about $33.30 per day per PH/s.” This figure is nearly at the breakeven point for most mining machines, just a step away from the historical low of $28 set on February 23.
When expenses exceed income, the only way for miners to survive is to “sell Bitcoin for cash.”
This forced selling behavior undoubtedly brings heavy selling pressure to an already weak market. It is important to note that currently, up to 43% of Bitcoin in the market is in a state of loss, with whales taking advantage of rebounds to offload at higher prices, while high-leverage positions dominate price trends. In other words, the pressure miners are currently facing is not only an industry issue but is also gradually evolving into an important variable affecting market structure.
Mining Companies’ Last Ditch Effort: Marching into AI and Hash Rate Transformation
Facing the dilemma of “losing money every day,” publicly listed mining companies are actively seeking transformation by extending their vast computing resources into artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing (HPC) fields, hoping to obtain more stable cash flow than mining. Mining giants, including Marathon Digital and Cipher Mining, have already begun to expand data centers based on their existing mining sites.
According to data predictions from CoinWarz, the next mining difficulty adjustment is expected to occur in early April and is likely to be further reduced. If the price of Bitcoin does not return to the mining cost line of $88,000 soon, this wave of “miners fleeing” will undoubtedly continue to spread.