Bitcoin hashrate dropped back below 1 zettahash in January 2026, with the network's 7-day average falling to 993 EH/s while miner revenue stayed thin because hashprice remained weak and transaction fees contributed only a small share of block rewards.
Bitcoin Hashrate Falls Back Under 1 Zettahash
One zettahash equals 1,000 exahashes per second, or EH/s. On Jan. 19, 2026, Cointelegraph reported, citing Hashrate Index data, that Bitcoin's 7-day moving average slipped to 993 EH/s, the first reading below 1 ZH/s since mid-September.
A separate AInvest report put network hashrate at 988 EH/s on Jan. 17, after roughly 90 days above the 1 ZH/s threshold. The move signals less aggregate compute securing Bitcoin, not a chain outage or protocol failure.
993 EH/s
Bitcoin's 7-day average hashrate fell below 1 zettahash on Jan. 19, 2026. Source: Cointelegraph citing Hashrate Index
What Changed From the October 2025 Peak
The January pullback looks more notable against the previous high. Cointelegraph said the 7-day average had reached 1,157 EH/s on Oct. 19, 2025, which puts the January reading about 15% below that peak.
Network difficulty also eased after late-2025 highs. The research brief cites difficulty at 146.5T after multiple declines from a 156T peak in November 2025, a reminder that lower competition can improve operating conditions even while total network power retreats.
Secondary reporting also tied the reset to broader mining strain. Cointelegraph quoted analyst Leon Lyu as saying the hashrate outflow showed persistent profitability pressure, with AI and high-performance computing competing for power and infrastructure.
Why Miner Revenue Still Looks Thin Despite Difficulty Relief
Hashrate, difficulty, hashprice and fees describe different parts of the mining business. Hashrate measures total computing power, difficulty measures how hard it is to find a block, hashprice measures expected revenue per unit of hash, and fees measure the extra income miners collect on top of the block subsidy.
On revenue, the improvement in January was modest. In its January 2026 lookback, Luxor and Hashrate Index said average USD hashprice rose 3.9% month over month to $39.37 per PH/s/day after two negative difficulty adjustments.
That rebound followed an especially weak December. In an earlier Hashrate Index analysis, the firm said hashprice was hovering near $37 per PH/s/day in December 2025 and described mining profitability as being under strong pressure.
Older-Generation Miners Still Faced Margin Pressure
January's relief was not enough to lift the whole fleet. Luxor said older-generation miners were operating at negative gross margins on many days, meaning power costs could still exceed mining revenue for less efficient machines.
That distinction matters because falling difficulty does not automatically mean healthy economics. Margins can improve at the same time that overall revenue per unit of hash remains historically weak, especially for operators running older hardware or paying higher power prices.
Fees Offered Almost No Cushion
Transaction fees remained a small part of the revenue mix. Luxor said January fees averaged about 0.019 BTC per block, or roughly 0.7% of total block rewards, which left miners overwhelmingly dependent on the subsidy rather than fee income.
That helps explain why the hashrate decline and the revenue story can coexist. Lower competition may help the miners that remain online, but January's economics still looked thin because the fee market was not strong enough to offset weak hashprice.
What Thin Fee Markets Mean for Ordinals and Bitcoin's Digital Ownership Layer
For nftenex readers, the fee data matters because transaction demand from Ordinals, inscriptions and other Bitcoin-native digital ownership activity should show up in miner fees. January's 0.7% fee share does not point to a major creator-economy tailwind for miners.
That does not mean Ordinals or Bitcoin NFT activity disappeared. It means the current level of on-chain demand was too small, or too inconsistent, to materially change mining economics during the month covered by Luxor's report.
The gap is important because some competitor coverage blurs together lower difficulty and better miner health. The cleaner interpretation is narrower: some pressure eased as hashrate and difficulty moved lower, but non-subsidy demand still was not doing much of the work.
A stronger digital ownership contribution would likely need to persist for months and lift fees well above a fraction of 1% of block rewards before it changed the mining outlook in a meaningful way. Until then, Bitcoin miners remain exposed mainly to hashprice, hardware efficiency and access to cheap power.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.