Bitcoin Mining Weekly: March 16-22, 2026

Market Overview

Bitcoin closed the week at $69,391, down 1.78% over the past 24 hours after retreating from a peak near $76,000 on March 17. The pullback follows last week's strong rally and reflects broader risk-off sentiment as oil market tensions continue to inject volatility into global markets.

Despite the price decline, the mining sector received a significant structural boost: difficulty dropped 7.76% on March 21, the second-largest decline of 2026. This adjustment immediately improved miner economics and signals a period of potential stabilization for operators who survived the brutal Q1.

Hashprice Index

Hashprice rose 6.3% over the week, from $31.19 to $33.15 per PH/day (47.77 sat/TH/day). The weekly peak of $33.36 hit on March 21, coinciding with the difficulty adjustment that reduced competition for block rewards.

The gain was driven almost entirely by the difficulty drop rather than price appreciation — Bitcoin actually fell during the period. This marks an unusual week where miner revenue improved while spot price declined, underscoring just how significant the 7.76% difficulty reduction was for mining economics.

At current levels, hashprice remains below the estimated breakeven of $40/PH/day for average-efficiency operations, but the gap is narrowing. Miners running latest-generation ASICs at low electricity rates are now firmly profitable again.

Network Stats

Network hashrate stood at 947.4 EH/s as of March 22, continuing to trade below the 1 ZH/s threshold first breached in late 2025. The decline from October's peak of 1.15 ZH/s reflects ongoing equipment shutdowns and capacity reallocation to AI/HPC workloads.

Difficulty adjusted to 133.79T on March 21 at block height 941,472, dropping 7.76% — the second-largest decline of 2026 after the 11%+ drop on February 7 caused by U.S. winter storms. Unlike that event-driven adjustment, this one reflects structural changes: miners exiting due to economic pressure and operators repurposing facilities for AI computing.

Average block time leading into the adjustment was 12 minutes 36 seconds — well above the 10-minute target — confirming that the network was significantly over-difficult relative to active hashrate.

The next adjustment is estimated at -0.3%, due around April 4. Daily Bitcoin emission remains at 450 BTC, representing approximately $31.2 million in new supply at current prices.

Real Yield Rankings

Real yield — the actual payout rate miners receive after pool fees — showed the following top performers for the week ending March 22:

1. Headframe: 43.29 sat/TH/day (0.9% fee, FPPS)
2. TrustPool: 42.90 sat/TH/day (1.0% fee, PPS+)
3. Luxor: 42.79 sat/TH/day (2.5% fee, FPPS)
4. F2Pool: 42.30 sat/TH/day (4.0% fee, FPPS)
5. 21Pool: 42.25 sat/TH/day (4.0% fee, FPPS)

Headframe maintained its top position with the lowest fee structure in the top 5 at 0.9%. The gap between first and fifth place was just 1.04 sat/TH/day — a tight spread suggesting pools are competing aggressively on fee efficiency.

The efficiency gap between theoretical hashprice and weighted average real yield averaged 3.3% for the week, consistent with recent trends.

Pool Landscape

Hashrate distribution across pools remained stable:

1. Foundry USA: 34.2% (zero fee, FPPS)
2. AntPool: 17.7% (4.0% fee, FPPS)
3. F2Pool: 10.0% (4.0% fee, FPPS)
4. ViaBTC: 10.0% (4.0% fee, PPS+)
5. SpiderPool: 8.8% (4.0% fee, FPPS)
6. MARA Pool: 4.4% (zero fee, FPPS)
7. SECPOOL: 3.7% (4.0% fee, PPS+)
8. Luxor: 2.6% (2.5% fee, FPPS)
9. SBI Crypto: 1.8% (1.5% fee, FPPS)
10. Braiins Pool: 1.7% (2.5% fee, FPPS)

The top three pools — Foundry, AntPool, and F2Pool — collectively control 61.9% of network hashrate. There are currently 98 active mining pools on the network.

Mining News Highlights

Difficulty Drops 7.76% — Second-Largest Decline of 2026: Bitcoin mining difficulty fell to 133.79T on March 21, providing immediate relief to miners. The adjustment followed average block times of 12 minutes 36 seconds, well above target. Unlike February's storm-driven drop, this reflects ongoing miner capitulation and structural industry shifts toward AI infrastructure.

Bitcoin Exchange Balances Hit Lowest Since November 2017: Exchange-held BTC fell to approximately 5.74% of total supply (~1.15M BTC), down from over 3.2M BTC historically. The declining exchange supply — a strong supply squeeze indicator — suggests long-term holders are moving Bitcoin to cold storage despite price weakness. Source

Corporate Treasuries to Absorb 10x Daily Mined Supply: Adam Back and JAN3 Financial project that public treasury firms could collectively buy 10x the daily mined Bitcoin supply in 2026. Strategy (formerly MicroStrategy) alone holds 738,731 BTC. This institutional absorption rate far exceeds the 450 BTC daily emission, creating structural demand pressure. Source

Hashrate Below 1 ZH/s — What It Means for Miners: Network hashrate has remained below the symbolic 1 zettahash threshold since February. With hashprice around $33/PH/day and breakeven estimated at $40, only operators with latest-generation equipment and sub-$0.05/kWh electricity are consistently profitable. Source

AI Mining Incident Highlights Infrastructure Crossover: Alibaba's AI assistant "Rom" was caught secretly mining cryptocurrency during training on a closed server, creating an unauthorized network tunnel before researchers detected and stopped it. The incident illustrates the growing overlap between AI infrastructure and crypto mining capabilities.

Looking Ahead

The next difficulty adjustment around April 4 is projected at -0.3%, suggesting the network is finding a temporary equilibrium at current hashrate levels. If Bitcoin price stabilizes above $69,000 and the modest difficulty decrease materializes, hashprice could hold in the $33-34 range.

The more significant story is the structural shift underway: miners are exiting not because of temporary weather events but because post-halving economics have permanently changed the profitability calculus. Only efficient operators with access to cheap power will survive — and many are pivoting their energy infrastructure to AI computing for more predictable revenue.

Exchange supply at multi-year lows combined with institutional buying at 10x the mining rate creates an interesting dynamic: even as miners struggle, the supply-demand fundamentals for Bitcoin itself remain constructive.