Bitcoin mining hashprice flat at $48/PH/s despite rising difficulty

Bitcoin’s (CRYPTO:BTC) mining hashprice—a key metric measuring daily revenue per unit of computational power—remains stagnant at approximately $48 per petahash per second (PH/s), despite a 1.4% increase in network difficulty to 113.76 trillion on March 23.

This stability contrasts with broader challenges facing miners, including outdated hardware, declining transaction fees, and macroeconomic headwinds.

The difficulty adjustment reflects Bitcoin’s automated mechanism to maintain consistent block times, but miners using older ASICs like the Antminer S19 XP and S19 Pro face financial strain.

Revenue for these machines has fallen to $0.088 and $0.067 per kilowatt-hour, respectively, below breakeven thresholds for operators with electricity costs exceeding these levels.

Transaction fees, which accounted for just 1.12% of block rewards in March, compound profitability pressures.

This marks the lowest fee contribution since January 2022, leaving miners increasingly reliant on block subsidies.

The April 2024 halving event, which reduced block rewards to 3.125 BTC per block, further exacerbated revenue challenges.

Publicly traded mining firms have struggled, with JPMorgan reporting a 22% collective share value decline in February 2025.

Even diversified operations in AI and high-performance computing face pressures, partly due to cost-efficient open-source AI models like DeepSeek R1.

Geopolitical tensions, including potential U.S.-Canada trade tariffs on energy exports, add uncertainty.

While Bitcoin’s long-term hashrate trend remains upward, short-term volatility and competition among miners persist.

Analysts note that hashprice stability below $50/PH/s risks forcing older hardware offline until upgrades or improved network conditions materialise.

At the time of reporting, the Bitcoin (BTC) price was $86,430.48.