Bitcoin mining network becoming more sensitive to price swings, JPMorgan says A growing share of miners are operating near breakeven levels, making hashrate and mining difficulty increasingly responsive to bitcoin’s price movements, the bank said. – JPMorgan said bitcoin mining…
fficulty’s sensitivity to price changes has risen sharply this year. – The bank estimated more miners are operating near breakeven as bitcoin trades below its production cost. – Larger and more frequent difficulty adjustments are likely if bitcoin remains under its estimated $78,000 production cost. Bitcoin’s mining network is becoming increasingly sensitive to price movements as more miners operate near breakeven levels, according to Wall Street bank JPMorgan
The bank said bitcoin’s hashrate and mining difficulty have become noticeably more responsive to changes in the cryptocurrency’s price this year. Over the past six months, the beta of mining difficulty relative to BTC price moves has climbed to 0.62, a sign that the network’s computing power is reacting more quickly to market conditions. “Mining economics have worsened this year with the bitcoin price staying well below its production cost for five months in a row,” analysts led by Nikolaos Panigirtzoglou said in the report last week. The hashrate refers to the total combined computational power used to mine and process transactions on a proof-of-work blockchain, and is measured in exahashes per second.
The analysts said the trend suggests a larger share of miners are now operating close to their production costs, making aggregate hash rate more vulnerable to price fluctuations. Mining economics have deteriorated in 2026, the analysts noted, with bitcoin trading below its estimated production cost for five consecutive months. Citing CoinShares’ first-quarter mining report, JPMorgan said roughly 20% of miners are currently estimated to be unprofitable.