Iran's Bitcoin Hashrate Falls 77% Amid Conflict

Iran's Bitcoin hashrate has collapsed by 77% over the past quarter, wiping out roughly 7 exahashes per second as military conflict with the US and Israel disrupted the country's mining operations — but the real story might be what's happening to the rest of the world's miners, and it has nothing to do with geopolitics.

Iran Lost 7 EH/s — But Neighbors Were Spared

Iran's Iran Bitcoin hashrate now sits at roughly 2 EH/s, down from approximately 9 EH/s at the start of the quarter — a collapse of about 7 exahashes per second in just three months. The data comes from Hashrate Index's Q2 2026 heatmap, analyzed by Ian Philpot, marketing director at Luxor Technology, in a report published Monday.

What didn't happen is arguably as telling as what did. Iran's two closest neighbors — the United Arab Emirates and Oman — showed no measurable hashrate disruption, even as the regional conflict escalated sharply in February when US and Israeli forces launched strikes against Iran, triggering retaliatory attacks from both sides. A ceasefire deal was reached Tuesday, though the mining damage in Iran appears to have already been done.

The contained nature of the disruption actually tells us something important about how resilient the Bitcoin network has become. No single country — not even a mid-sized contributor like Iran with its estimated 427,000 active mining rigs — can meaningfully threaten network continuity when global hashrate sits above 1,000 EH/s.

The impact was contained to Iran; neighboring UAE and Oman remained stable. The global hashrate at ~1,000 EH/s persists because no single region has enough capacity to threaten network continuity. Regional disruptions redistribute hashrate rather than destroy it.

Why Is Global Hashrate Sliding?

What is causing the global Bitcoin hashrate decline in 2026?

The global hashrate decline is driven primarily by falling Bitcoin prices, not geopolitical shocks. The 30-day simple moving average of global network hashrate dropped from 1,066 EH/s in Q1 to approximately 1,004 EH/s in Q2 — a 5.8% quarter-over-quarter decline. Philpot was direct in his attribution: Bitcoin mining profitability is what's driving machines offline, not energy costs or regulatory crackdowns.

The math is brutal for anyone running older equipment. Miners earn Bitcoin for every block they solve, but when Bitcoin price tanks, those rewards don't cover electricity bills. With Bitcoin off more than 45% from its October $126,000 all-time high, hash prices have sunk to record lows — and the machines doing the most marginal work are the first to get unplugged.

Philpot estimates roughly 252 EH/s of total network capacity is currently sitting offline — mostly legacy hardware that was already on borrowed time. That's a massive chunk of the network in cold storage, waiting for a price recovery that may or may not come this cycle. Older-generation equipment with efficiency ratings above 25 J/TH is now operating at negative gross margins, meaning it costs more in electricity to run them than the Bitcoin they produce.

At these levels, older-generation equipment, 25+ J/TH efficiency, operates at negative gross margins, forcing shutdown. We estimate 252 EH/s of marginal capacity sits offline — most legacy hardware already retired.

Who Holds the Network Now?

The US remains the dominant force in global Bitcoin mining, holding over 37% of total network hashrate according to the Hashrate Index heatmap. Russia sits in second at roughly 17%, followed by China at approximately 12%. These figures have held broadly flat quarter-over-quarter among the largest players, though the composition underneath is shifting fast.

Legacy hardware is cycling out. Modern, efficient rigs are being deployed — but selectively, and only in regions where electricity rates and regulatory stability make long-term profitability realistic. Canada mirrors this dynamic: a slight quarter-over-quarter pullback but positive year-over-year growth, reflecting a mining base that's optimizing its fleet rather than retreating from the industry.

That 'optimize not exit' dynamic is worth watching. The miners who survive this kind of prolonged price pressure aren't just the ones with the cheapest power — they're the ones who already upgraded their hardware before the downturn hit. The ones who didn't are now counted in that 252 EH/s sitting idle.

What Does This Mean for Bitcoin's Security?

Short answer: very little, for now. Hashrate redistribution is not the same as hashrate destruction. When Iran's rigs go dark — whether from bombs, power outages, or unprofitability — those blocks don't disappear. They get solved by someone else, somewhere else. The Bitcoin protocol adjusts difficulty automatically to compensate, keeping block times near the 10-minute target regardless of where the hashing power lives.

The longer-term question is whether today's price-driven shutdowns create a concentration problem down the line. If 252 EH/s of capacity stays offline indefinitely, and the machines that replace it are disproportionately located in one or two jurisdictions, that's a different risk profile than a distributed global network. The US already holds more than a third of global hashrate — a position that carries its own set of regulatory and geopolitical tail risks.

Iran's 77% crash is dramatic. But the quieter, more structural story is the one playing out in spreadsheets across every mining company right now: at $126,000 BTC, almost anything works. At current prices, efficiency is the only thing keeping the lights on.