Iran Hashrate Crash Shows Bitcoin Mining Shift Globally
- Iran’s hashrate fell 77% as strikes cut power and forced about 427,000 rigs offline.
- Global Bitcoin hashrate stayed near 1,000 EH/s as other regions absorbed the loss.
- The UAE and Oman stayed stable, showing the disruption remained largely inside Iran.
Bitcoin mining in Iran fell sharply over the past quarter after U.S. and Israeli strikes disrupted power infrastructure and forced about 427,000 machines offline. Even so, global hashrate stayed near 1,000 EH/s as other regions absorbed the shock, according to a Hashrate Index report published Monday by Ian Philpot of Luxor Technologies.
Iran’s Mining Drop Stands Out
The report said Iran’s Bitcoin hashrate dropped about 77% quarter over quarter, sliding from roughly 9 exahashes per second to 2 EH/s. It also said the United States, Russia, and China together still control more than 65% of the global Bitcoin hashrate.
Philpot tied Iran’s decline to strikes that began in February and hit infrastructure broadly. Those disruptions cut reliable grid access to industrial mining facilities that had operated under government license since Iran legalized Bitcoin mining in 2019.
Iran built its mining sector around sanctions-era incentives. The model relied on subsidized hydroelectric power and a channel to monetize energy exports outside dollar-based settlement. Once grid stability weakened, that cost advantage disappeared.
Global Network Holds Firm
What happens when a major mining hub loses most of its output in one quarter? The report said the answer, so far, is redistribution rather than network damage. Iran lost about 7 EH/s, which represented less than 0.7% of the network’s pre-conflict capacity.
For that reason, the global hashrate absorbed the shock without measurable security degradation. Philpot wrote, “The impact was contained to Iran; neighboring UAE and Oman remained stable.”
He also wrote, “The global hashrate at ~1,000 EH/s persists because no single region has enough capacity to threaten network continuity.” He added that regional disruptions redistribute hashrate rather than destroy it.
Price Pressure Shapes the Wider Trend
The report said Iran’s decline did not spread across nearby mining hubs. The United Arab Emirates and Oman remained stable despite concern about possible spillover through regional energy links.
Bitcoin’s difficulty algorithm also helped contain the effect. It adjusts every 2,016 blocks, or about every two weeks, to keep average block times near ten minutes.
That means a 7 EH/s regional loss can be absorbed in a single recalibration cycle. The report said the change carried no material effect on block intervals or transaction finality.
Philpot pointed instead to a broader profitability squeeze in the second quarter. The 30-day simple moving average of global hashrate fell from 1,066 EH/s in Q1 to about 1,004 EH/s in Q2.
Read more: Bitcoin Tops $72K, Ethereum Jumps as U.S.-Iran Ceasefire Lifts Markets
That marked a 5.8% quarter-over-quarter decline, which Philpot attributed mainly to Bitcoin’s price collapse rather than geopolitical disruption. In that context, Iran’s decline remained a regional shock inside a wider, price-driven slowdown.
The United States and Iran reached a two-week ceasefire on Tuesday. Still, the report said the durability of that arrangement and the timeline for infrastructure restoration remain unclear.
Iran’s mining disruption showed how quickly regional shocks can hit Bitcoin infrastructure, yet it also showed how resilient the wider network remains. While the country lost about 7 EH/s and hundreds of thousands of machines went offline, global hashrate stayed near 1,000 EH/s as other regions absorbed the pressure. At the same time, the broader decline in network activity pointed more to falling miner profitability than conflict alone, keeping Iran’s setback significant locally but limited at the global level overall.
