BTC mining hashrate hits ATH, intensifying pressure on U.S. miners squeezed by tariffs

As Bitcoin’s hashrate hits an all-time high, U.S. miners grapple with shrinking profits on top of rising equipment costs due to Trump’s tariffs.

Bitcoin (BTC) mining hashrate—the measure of computational power used to mine and process transactions on the network—has surpassed 1 Zetahash per second (ZH/s), marking a 1000X increase since January 2016. This milestone was reached on April 5, although different sources report slightly varying peak ZH/s numbers due to different measurement methods. Mempool.space recorded a peak of 1.025 ZH/s, while BTC Frame measured it at 1.02 ZH/s on April 4.

While a growing hashrate means the network is more resistant to attacks, it brings a challenge for BTC miners. As the hashrate increases, the network adjusts its difficulty to maintain the steady block time of approximately 10 minutes per block. ​This happens approximately every two weeks (or every 2,016 blocks) to ensure new blocks are added at a stable rate.

Since the rewards for mining BTC are fixed at 450 BTC per day until the next halving in 2028, this means that as more computational power is flooding the network, the mining rewards must be divided among a larger number of miners. With more miners competing for the same total reward, each individual miner’s share decreases, leading to a decline in hashprice—the amount of revenue a miner earns per unit of hashrate. Indeed, hashprice has seen sharp drop over the past three months, falling from around $60 in mid-January to around $40 at press time, confirming the profitability squeeze on miners as hashrate climbs.

As hashrate increases, miners face increasing pressure to maximize operational efficiency. “Miners are doubling down: expanding sites and plugging in more efficient machines,” Blockware Solutions head analyst Mitchell Askew told Cointelegraph. He also added that miners with less efficient equipment may soon be forced out of the market unless Bitcoin’s price increases in the near future.

The challenge to Bitcoin miners has been further compounded by Trump’s tariffs, which have increased the cost of mining equipment for U.S. mining firms. China remains the top supplier of Bitcoin mining hardware but now faces a 34% retaliatory tariff on exports to the U.S., putting pressure on American miners’ ROI.