The biggest impact of the Bitcoin crash was not on investors, but on miners.

Bitcoin has fallen to around $76,000, a drop of over 40% from its peak. To the average observer, this may seem like a routine adjustment, but for Bitcoin miners, the price crash, soaring network difficulty, and rising energy costs have created a perfect storm, plunging them into a severe survival crisis. CryptoQuant data shows that the miner profitability sustainability index has plummeted to 21, the lowest since the end of 2024. Financial pressure has led to a 12% drop in Bitcoin's total hashrate since November of last year, the largest decline since the mining ban in Asia in 2021, with the network hashrate falling to its lowest level since September 2025. Miner profits have hit an all-time low. According to f2pool data, with a Bitcoin price of $76,176, a hashrate of 890 EH/s, and an electricity cost of $0.06/kWh, miners earn only $0.034 per ETH per day, and the hashrate price has fallen to a historic low of $34 per PH/s. Reflecting this on specific mining machines, older and inefficient models have an electricity cost ratio of 109%-162%, already incurring losses before deducting additional expenses. Mid-generation mining machines have a cost ratio close to 100%, and even the latest models have a cost ratio of 52%, severely compressing profit margins. However, unlike previous crypto winters, this time miners have a new "escape pod": the transformation of AI infrastructure. The electricity and grid connections required for Bitcoin mining perfectly align with the needs of large-scale AI computing, and the willingness to pay in the AI ​​field is higher. CoreWeave's transformation from mining to AI cloud services has secured a $2 billion investment from Nvidia; Canadian miner Hut8 has signed a $7 billion 15-year AI data center lease agreement. These transformations allow miners to escape the volatility of Bitcoin profits and lock in long-term gains, but they also result in the permanent diversion of some computing power, rather than temporary shutdowns to wait for price recovery. However, this loss of computing power poses a potential threat to Bitcoin network security. While Bitcoin's absolute security remains extremely high, the continued decline in computing power reduces the marginal cost of attacks and the resources needed to gain control of the network. Simultaneously, the exit of inefficient miners leads to the centralization of computing power, exacerbating network vulnerabilities. CryptoQuant points out that a large amount of industrial computing power is currently operating at a meager profit or loss; this indicator can proactively reflect the robustness of network security budgets relative to other electricity uses. The future predicament of miners may give rise to three development paths: First, industry consolidation, with high-efficiency computing power occupying a larger share, slowing the growth rate of computing power while maintaining security levels; second, an accelerated transition to a fee-driven security mechanism, relying on transaction fees to maintain miner incentives; and third, the introduction of external guarantee mechanisms, with institutions providing targeted support. The core contradiction lies in the industry's need to weigh the gap between the costs incurred in energy competition to retain hash power and the returns from the AI ​​field, which will ultimately determine the future direction of the Bitcoin mining market.