Dear weary readers, imagine a sorcerer’s watch turning backward, and in the mystical realm of Bitcoin, the network power did just that, folding its arcane energy under the one-zettahash mark after its triumphant days above. To the uninitiated, this means the seven-day average hashrate is flirting with 993 EH/s, casting a shadow over last year’s highs no less!
Alas, The Gargantuan Famine for Power
In a ventriloquism performance that would impress even Pythagoras, big AI data centers have whispered promises of enduring power contracts, offering gold-laced coins to ensure their voracious appetites have electricity flowing day and night. This courtship has aged miners, forcing them to juggle coal with oven gloves and, in some cases, cast them away to other realms.
As if stepping out from the wings in a vaudeville show, some publicly traded miners have welcomed chipmakers and AI firms to perform as guests upon their stages, during which one magnanimous miner entered a multi-year lease with a major chip maker, a dance of sorts to hedge against the capricious winds of mining fortunes.
Leon Lyu, CEO and self-proclaimed oracle of StandardHash, spoke prophecies into the divine ether known as X, attributing this crumbled hashrate to a shift in Bitcoin miners’ focus, now pirouetting toward AI’s golden margins.
The Significance of Such a Conundrum
For those in the labyrinthine, it’s no secret: electricity lurks as the dragon guarding the treasure trove for miners. With data centers now entering its realm, our miners stand at a crossroads, deciding whether to sacrifice more coin, squeeze what’s left in their wallets, or transform their lairs into AI sanctuaries.
🚨 Lurking in the Shadows, the Mining Hashrate Adjusts! 🚨
Behold! For the first instance since Sept 2025, the 7-day talisman of BTC hashrates has cascaded below the 1 ZH/s threshold. Anticipate a -4.34% difficulty wind-down in about three dawns.
Who could be beckoning this exodus?
1⃣ The Grand AI Pivot: Major mining firms are…
– Leon Lyu (@LeonLyuLv) January 19, 2026
The network’s difficulty, that elusive shapeshifter, has eased slightly due to this drop in hashpower, preserving the rhythmic beat of block times. Yet, this trinket does nothing to alter the reign of those clutching power contracts with an iron grip.
PJM, the mystical overseer of the mid-Atlantic’s grid, has taken swift action, penning enchanted scrolls proposing rules to tame the burgeoning appetite of AI golems.
The scroll proclaims a calling to the large new power users, tasking them with the responsibility of conjuring their own power spells or complying with muzzling rules to ensure homes and essential services avoid the darkness of outages.

✨ The Divergent Paths of Bitcoin and AI: A Whisper from the Council of Statesmen
With a flourish of scripts and seals, the illustrious President Donald Trump, joined by his band of state leaders, chant incantations urging tech titans to fork over more treasures to stabilize the flow of power, including proposals for emergency auctions to birth new power plants.
Their call echoes fears of insurmountable bills and the specter of data centers overwhelming all other magic within their territories.
What Miners Are Conjuring to Survive
As if pulling rabbits from hats, operators not only shut down their rigs when electricity turns expensive; they are dispatching workers to retrofit their establishments to accommodate GPUs and other AI sorceries. Such alchemy promises steadier revenues and enduring contracts.
It signals a transformation akin to a chrysalis: bitcoin mining evolving into a mere facet of an expansive computational symphony for some adepts.

Let us not forget, the grand puppeteers – block rewards and protocol doctrines – still cast their runes to secure the network. Should the hashrate linger below for many cycles, the oracles and magnates will keenly observe whether the powers of centralization strengthen in realms where the cost of power whispers like a benediction.
For mortals wandering the digital plains, blocks continue to emerge; for our beleaguered miners, this duel for electricity has become their epoch-defining enigma!
Read More
- Darkwood Trunk Location in Hytale
- How To Watch A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Online And Stream The Game Of Thrones Spinoff From Anywhere
- Best Controller Settings for ARC Raiders
- Ashes of Creation Rogue Guide for Beginners
- Hytale: Upgrade All Workbenches to Max Level, Materials Guide
- Olympian Katie Ledecky Details Her Gold Medal-Winning Training Regimen
- Matt Damon’s Wife Thought Ben Affleck Was the Cute One Before Meeting
- Shonda Rhimes’ Daughters Make Rare Appearance at Bridgerton Premiere
- RHOBH’s Jennifer Tilly Reacts to Sutton Stracke “Snapping” at Her
- Daredevil Is Entering a New Era With a Chilling New Villain (And We Have A First Look) (Exclusive)
2026-01-20 04:46