Expert Notes Bitcoin’s First Hashrate Bear Market as Network Power Drops by 145 EH/s

Amid Bitcoin’s price decline to levels not seen since February, the network hashrate has fallen sharply, with 145 exahashes per second (EH/s) leaving the system since late May.

Key Takeaways:

• Bitcoin’s network hashrate has dropped by 145 EH/s since May 28, falling to 885 EH/s, while prices have declined to February lows.
• Hashprice has fallen by 26.96% over 30 days to $28.26 per PH/s, while Elektron Energy CEO Rafa Zagury called this Bitcoin’s first “hashrate bear market”.
• A 10.76% difficulty reduction is forecast for June 13, 2026, as fees below 1% of miner rewards remain a long-term structural problem.

Hashprice Falls 27% in 30 Days as Miner Revenues Shrink

Bitcoin’s computing power has declined noticeably since May 28, 2026, when the network was operating at 1,030 EH/s, according to hashrateindex.com data. Today, that figure has fallen to 885 EH/s. This decline has been accompanied by falling miner revenues, which remain closely tied to Bitcoin’s market value.

Bitcoin’s total hashrate according to hashrateindex.com.

At the time of publication, hashprice — the estimated daily profit generated by 1 petahash per second (PH/s) of computing power — stood at $28.26 on June 7. Thirty days earlier, on May 7, the figure was $38.69, meaning mining revenue had fallen by 26.96% compared with the level one month earlier.

Network Fees Make Up Less Than 1% of Miner Rewards as Block Times Exceed 10 Minutes

Network fees remain insignificant, making up less than 1% of miner rewards and, according to the median average, accounting for just 0.73% of the total over the past day. One encouraging point is that network difficulty has continued to fall during recent adjustments, recalibrating the effort required to discover new blocks. However, this also means that less computing power is being used to secure the network, while intervals between blocks often move beyond the protocol’s expected 10-minute average.

A significant difficulty reduction is expected on June 13, 2026, after the previous adjustment increased difficulty by 1.72%. Although forecasts may change, the next epoch could bring a 10.76% decline due to the continued slowdown in block production. At present, the average block time over the past day has hovered around 11 minutes and 12 seconds.

Elektron Energy CEO Declares Bitcoin’s First-Ever Hashrate Bear Market

Many network observers argue that conditions for mining participants are becoming increasingly difficult, while Elektron Energy CEO Rafa Zagury said Bitcoin is experiencing its first historical “hashrate bear market”.

Recent comment from Elektron Energy CEO Rafa Zagury. Image source: X.

Zagury explained that this phenomenon is defined by a gradual, market-driven contraction that has pushed the network hashrate roughly 25% below its September 2025 peak, as unprofitable mining farms continue to shut down, he wrote in a post on X last month. Although this development challenges the industry’s long-standing assumption that hashrate only rises over time, Zagury argues that Bitcoin’s security remains firmly protected because the capital required to carry out a 51% attack remains prohibitively large.

Instead, Zagury argues that the more significant long-term problem is the stagnation of the transaction fee market, which will eventually have to offset the steadily declining block subsidy. Meanwhile, many publicly traded miners are redirecting resources towards artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, leaving leaner and more disciplined operators with an opportunity to benefit from Bitcoin’s self-regulating difficulty mechanism, which reduces competition and gives surviving participants a larger share of network rewards.

Fee Market Stagnation Poses a More Serious Long-Term Threat Than a Temporary Hashrate Decline

According to many analysts, the fee market problem is gradual but deeply structural. The block subsidy is cut in half every four years, yet transaction fees currently account for less than 1% of miner rewards. Before the 2024 halving, transaction fees made up a much larger share of miner revenue than they do today. Over time, this imbalance could have far more serious consequences than a temporary reduction in hashrate.

See also: "Hut 8 Prices $4.25B Notes to Build 352MW Texas AI Data Centre"

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