Bitcoin’s network hashrate—the computing power securing the blockchain—has dropped roughly 15% from its October peak, highlighting mounting stress among miners.

Hashrate has fallen from around 1.1 zettahashes per second (ZH/s) in October to about 977 exahashes per second (EH/s), indicating that some miners are shutting down equipment or capitulating as profitability declines.

Glassnode’s Hash Ribbon metric, which tracks miner capitulation by comparing short- and long-term hashrate trends, inverted on Nov. 29, shortly after bitcoin bottomed near $80,000. When inverted, miners typically sell bitcoin to fund operations, adding near-term supply pressure.

Miner capitulation is often considered a contrarian signal. VanEck notes that prolonged miner stress has historically preceded renewed bitcoin price momentum as inefficient miners exit the market. According to the Hash Ribbon, the worst may be ending once the 30-day hashrate moving average rises above the 60-day average—a setup that has frequently coincided with improving prices.

Falling hashrate has also triggered repeated negative difficulty adjustments. Bitcoin’s mining difficulty, which automatically adjusts to keep block times near 10 minutes, is set to drop 4% on Jan. 22 to roughly 139 trillion (T), marking the seventh negative adjustment in eight periods.

Additional selling pressure is coming from miners reallocating capital toward AI and high-performance computing. Companies such as Riot Platforms (RIOT) have sold bitcoin to fund these ventures, contributing to short-term downward pressure on the market.