Q1 Bitcoin: Bitdeer, MARA and Riot Gain Hashrate

Public blockchain data show Bitcoin’s average network hashrate fell from about 985 EH/s in Q4 2025 to roughly 873 EH/s in Q1 2026. Quarterly production disclosures compiled from major public miners indicate the combined realized hashrate of 10 tracked companies edged down from about 297 EH/s to 291 EH/s; HIVE and Cango were excluded because their Q1 production data were incomplete.

Several public miners increased realized hashrate in Q1 2026. Bitdeer’s realized hashrate rose to 50.26 EH/s from 43.20 EH/s after energizing SEALMINER units. Marathon Digital’s realized hashrate increased to 55.52 EH/s from 51.92 EH/s. Riot Platforms’ realized hashrate climbed to 42.29 EH/s from 34.21 EH/s. American Bitcoin expanded its owned fleet capacity to 28.1 EH/s in April from 25 EH/s after reenergizing its Drumheller site, which had been offline since 2024.

Other miners sharply reduced output while converting facilities. IREN’s realized hashrate fell to 35.83 EH/s from 42.96 EH/s. Cipher Digital reduced output to 11.14 EH/s from 16.55 EH/s after fully decommissioning its Black Pearl mining operations in February to begin retrofitting the site for high-performance computing. Keel Infrastructure, formerly Bitfarms, declined to 11.51 EH/s from 16.52 EH/s as it wound down legacy mining and shifted into North American AI infrastructure development.

TeraWulf owned roughly 54,100 Bitcoin miners as of March 31 but reported about 35,500 operational units at its Lake Mariner campus; the remaining roughly 18,600 miners were listed as undergoing maintenance, awaiting disposal, or held on standby to replace units under repair. Operators in several cases are converting substations, cooling systems and data center layouts to support GPU workloads. Filings and executive disclosures indicate that once sites are reconfigured for AI, a quick return to Bitcoin mining is unlikely.

Corporate filings showed large-scale fleet dismantling, asset write-downs and impairments tied to site conversions for AI and colocation. Core Scientific recorded a $266.5 million impairment in Q1 2026, including $151.6 million related to mining equipment and $114.9 million tied to mining infrastructure, and projects continued wind-down of mining operations through 2026 with only one or two mining sites expected to remain by year-end. Cipher Digital reported about $30.8 million of mining rigs classified as held for sale. CleanSpark reported a modest hashrate decline and indicated older ASIC fleets may be sold or relocated once AI deployments are operational; the company noted potential future impairment charges in its filings.

American Bitcoin used a pledged-bitcoin structure to finance part of its expansion, committing 3,090 bitcoin to Bitmain for the purchase of 18 EH/s of computing power. That 18 EH/s represented roughly 64% of ABTC’s 28.1 EH/s proprietary fleet as of March 31. ABTC mined 817 bitcoin in Q1 2026, a 505% increase year over year. At the current production pace and assuming network hashrate remains stable, the company could mine back the equivalent of the pledged bitcoin in about six quarters.

The quarter’s results show a redistribution of industrial-scale hashing power across public miners. Aggregate changes were modest, but company-level shifts included both expansion by some operators and dismantling or repurposing by others. Market participants and filings indicate the topic will be tracked in the coming quarters.