Hashrate Is Stuck at 932 Exahash and the Zettahash Line Keeps Holding

Crypto Eyes · 13 September 2026 · 5 min read · Mining

Chart of bitcoin hashrate at 932 EH/s against the one zettahash threshold it has failed to cross

The bitcoin hashrate stalls at 932 EH/s at block 966,101 even as hashprice recovered 22.24% to $39.63, with difficulty at 127.45 trillion after its eighth rise of 2026.

Why the bitcoin hashrate stalls despite better revenue

Metric	Value
Hashrate	932 EH/s
Difficulty	127.45 trillion (+1.31%)
Hashprice	~$39.63 per PH/s/day (+22.24% over 30 days)
2026 difficulty change	-13% from January's 146.47tn
Fee share of block rewards	0.43%

The one zettahash threshold — 1,000 EH/s — has been approached and not crossed repeatedly this year. It is a round number with no protocol significance, and that is precisely why the failure to cross it is informative: nothing is stopping it except the absence of machines.

Why a 22% revenue gain brought nothing back

The alternative use of a megawatt pays far more.

A Bitmain S21 Pro generates roughly $113.45 per megawatt-hour mining bitcoin. A full-stack AI operator earns between $807 and $1,213 for the same megawatt-hour. Even an HPC colocation landlord, taking no operational risk, earns $140 to $200.

Miners unplugged 23% of their hashrate in the first half of 2026 — a reduction of 56 EH/s — while sector AI revenue rose 52% quarter on quarter. Fourteen companies analysed spent $18.6 billion in capital expenditure in a single quarter.

A 22% improvement in mining economics does not close an elevenfold gap. It makes mining marginally less unattractive against an alternative that remains vastly more profitable, and the machines stay where they are.

The difficulty arithmetic for the year

Eight increases totalling 33.34%, ten decreases totalling 45.27%. Net: difficulty down about 13% from January's 146.47 trillion.

That is the protocol working exactly as designed. Hashpower left, blocks slowed, difficulty fell, the remaining miners earned more per unit of work, and equilibrium returned at a lower level.

What the mechanism cannot do is create demand for mining. It redistributes a fixed reward among however many machines are running.

The number that matters over a decade

Transaction fees contributed 0.43% of miner revenue over a recent twenty-four-hour period.

Bitcoin's security budget has two components. The block subsidy halves on a fixed schedule. Fees are meant to replace it as block space becomes scarce relative to demand.

At 0.43%, the fee market is contributing almost nothing. Layer 2 networks moved transactions off the main chain by design, exchanges batch withdrawals, and the inscription activity that produced fee spikes in 2023 and 2024 has faded.

That is the tension at the centre of bitcoin's long-run economics: successful scaling moves activity off the chain that needs fee revenue to fund its security. There is no proposed resolution that does not involve either sustained main-chain congestion or a change to issuance, and neither is popular.

Where hashprice needs to be

Between $60 and $70 per PH/s per day for mining to compete with AI hosting per megawatt. It is at $39.63.

That is a required increase of 50% to 75%. Since hashprice scales with bitcoin's price and inversely with difficulty, reaching $65 at flat difficulty implies bitcoin somewhere near its October 2025 record of $126,198.07 — and difficulty rises to meet any sustained price gain.

What to watch

Whether 1 ZH/s is crossed. With hashprice near $40 and price near $79,000, crossing it would mean machines genuinely returning instead of an estimate artefact.

The next difficulty adjustment. A run of increases confirms hashpower coming back; continued flatness confirms the AI competition is binding.

Fee share over a full month. A single day at 0.43% is noise. A monthly average near it is a structural statement.

Megawatt allocation in quarterly filings. The disclosure that matters is megawatts to mining versus AI hosting. Some operators publish it clearly; most do not, which is itself informative.

What the halving does to this picture

Bitcoin's block subsidy halves on a fixed schedule, and the next one lands into conditions no previous halving faced.

In every prior cycle, the marginal miner who shut down had nowhere better to point their power. Machines were sold or mothballed, and hashrate returned within months as price recovered and difficulty adjusted down.

This time the marginal miner has a customer paying contracted rates for the same megawatts at roughly eleven times the revenue, and that customer's demand does not fall when bitcoin's subsidy halves.

Combine that with fees at 0.43% of block rewards and the arithmetic is stark: subsidy revenue halves, fee revenue is negligible, and the alternative use of the power is unaffected. There is no historical precedent for how much hashpower comes back, because no previous halving had a competing bid for the electricity.

About this report. Hashrate and block height are from CoinWarz. Difficulty, hashprice, the fee share and the 2026 adjustment tally are from Bitcoin.com News mining coverage of 6 September 2026. Revenue-per-megawatt-hour comparisons, the 23% unplugging figure and capital expenditure totals are from Miner Weekly. Hashrate estimates vary by methodology and rolling window.

Not investment advice. Mining economics change with price, difficulty and power contracts.

Frequently asked questions

What is bitcoin's hashrate now?

932 EH/s at block 966,101, still short of the one zettahash threshold it has approached and failed to cross repeatedly this year. Difficulty stands at 127.45 trillion after a 1.31% increase, the eighth rise of 2026.

Why did hashrate not rise with hashprice?

The alternative pays far more. A mining rig earns roughly $113.45 per megawatt-hour while a full-stack AI operator earns $807 to $1,213. Miners unplugged 23% of hashrate in the first half of 2026, and a 22% revenue gain does not close an elevenfold gap.

What has difficulty done in 2026?

Eight increases totalling 33.34% against ten decreases totalling 45.27%, leaving difficulty about 13% below January's 146.47 trillion. That is the protocol redistributing a fixed reward among fewer machines, exactly as designed.

Why do transaction fees at 0.43% matter?

Because the block subsidy halves on a fixed schedule and fees are meant to replace it. At 0.43% of block rewards the fee market contributes almost nothing, so bitcoin's security budget falls with each halving while AI data centres bid for the same power.

Sources

bitcoin mining