Bitcoin miners currently have an average production cost of $88,000, with market prices around $69,200, resulting in losses of 21%. Mining difficulty has decreased by 7.76%, with hash price approaching the break-even line. Most mining enterprises are shifting toward AI business, and increased miner Bitcoin sales are adding selling pressure to the market. The next difficulty adjustment is expected in early April, and if conditions persist, further downward adjustments may occur.

Provenance Blockchain's HASH token rose 17.5% in 24 hours to reach a market cap of $807 million, but the increase was supported by low trading volume of only $112,477, raising concerns about liquidity and price stability.

Gate News reports that on March 19, the HASH token of Provenance Blockchain increased by 23.8% within 24 hours. Data shows that the trading volume of this token during the same period was $114,406, which is relatively small and may indicate a tight supply situation.

Gate News, on March 18, Starknet mainnet will begin a planned upgrade starting at 17:10 (UTC+8) today, with an estimated downtime of approximately 12 minutes. Starknet stated that this upgrade is part of its move toward further decentralization, which will transfer the block hash calculation of Starknet blocks to decentralized Apollo nodes.

Gate News: On March 18, Starknet officially posted on X stating that its mainnet will temporarily shut down starting at 9:10 AM UTC today for a scheduled upgrade.

Bitdeer's mining and operational data disclosed in February 2026 showed that its self-operated hash rate reached 68 EH/s, with 705 BTC mined, representing a year-over-year growth of 541%. The AI cloud business is developing well, with 2,096 GPUs deployed and annualized revenue of approximately $21 million. The company is also negotiating leasing agreements with potential customers and plans to begin mass production of the SEALMINER A4-1 mining machine in March 2026.

Artificial intelligence's increased demand for electricity has raised concerns about Bitcoin mining security. Since AI data centers generate higher revenue per megawatt of power than Bitcoin mining, mining companies are shifting toward AI. Crypto traders believe this could lead to a decline in Bitcoin's hash rate, increasing the risk of network attacks. However, Bitcoin developers argue that the difficulty adjustment mechanism will attract miners back to the network.

With the rise of artificial intelligence data centers, the bitcoin mining industry faces transformation pressure. Some miners are turning toward AI computing, attracted by higher returns from electricity costs. Although bitcoin's mining difficulty adjustment mechanism may restore network balance, the decline in hash rate raises security concerns, and the market is focused on the impact of bitcoin price volatility on mining return flows.

CoinCodex has selected eight top ASIC miners, and ICERIVER's ALEO AE3 has been successfully selected. This miner, specifically designed for the zkSNARK algorithm and optimized for the Aleo blockchain, features a maximum hash rate of 2GH/S, power consumption of 3400W, and is scheduled for release in November 2025.

This week, Bitcoin's network average hashrate was 994 EH/s, down 3.01% from last week; the average price was $68,687, up 1.03%. Notable events include Mara depositing 298 BTC to Cumberland, and DMG Blockchain exploring power finance hedge contracts.