Key Points
- Iran’s Bitcoin hashrate dropped 77% after infrastructure strikes disrupted power supply.
- Global network remained stable near 1,000 EH/s despite regional mining losses.
Iran’s Bitcoin hashrate declined by approximately 77% over the past quarter, falling from about 9 exahashes per second (EH/s) to 2 EH/s.
The drop followed U.S. and Israeli military strikes that disrupted Iran’s power infrastructure, forcing an estimated 427,000 mining machines offline, according to a report by Hashrate Index.
The reduction amounts to a loss of roughly 7 EH/s quarter-over-quarter and represents the sharpest regional contraction since China’s 2021 mining ban.
Despite the disruption, the global hashrate remained close to 1,000 EH/s, reflecting the decentralized design of Bitcoin’s proof-of-work system.
Infrastructure Disruptions and Regional Impact
Military actions that began in February reportedly targeted Iranian infrastructure broadly, limiting reliable grid access to industrial mining facilities.
Iran had legalized Bitcoin mining in 2019 and developed the sector using subsidized hydroelectric power to create cost advantages for licensed operators.
Those advantages weakened as grid stability declined, directly affecting mining operations dependent on consistent electricity supply.
Although concerns emerged about potential spillover into energy-linked neighbors such as the UAE and Oman, reported impacts remained contained within Iran.
The 7 EH/s reduction represents less than 0.7% of the network’s pre-conflict global capacity, limiting broader security implications.
A temporary two-week ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran was reached, while the timeline for infrastructure restoration remains uncertain.
Difficulty Adjustment and Market Pressures
The Bitcoin network adjusts mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks, to maintain an average ten-minute block time.
Given the scale of global hashrate, the Iranian reduction could be absorbed within a single difficulty adjustment cycle without significantly affecting transaction processing.
However, the 30-day moving average of global hashrate declined from 1,066 EH/s in Q1 to about 1,004 EH/s in Q2, representing a 5.8% decrease.
This broader contraction has been attributed primarily to the decline in Bitcoin prices rather than geopolitical factors.
The asset has fallen more than 45% from its previous all-time high of $126,000 recorded in October, according to CoinGecko data.
Lower prices reduced mining profitability and led to the shutdown of an estimated 252 EH/s worth of older, less efficient ASIC machines worldwide.
Unlike China’s 2021 mining ban, which removed a majority share of global hashrate and triggered multiple negative difficulty adjustments, Iran’s decline has produced no comparable cascade.
The regional disruption occurred alongside a broader profitability-driven mining slowdown rather than causing systemic network instability.
