Zetahash & the Underdogs: August’s Bitcoin Mining Shakeup
This article first appeared in Miner Weekly, BlocksBridge Consulting’s weekly newsletter curating the latest news in bitcoin mining and data analysis from TheEnergyMag. Subscribe to receive in your inbox once a week.
Bitcoin mining has crossed a historic threshold: For the first time in the network’s 16-year history, the 14-day moving average hashrate surpassed 1 zetahash per second (ZH/s), cementing a symbolic leap in scale as the difficulty retarget at the block height 915264 is set to push mining difficulty beyond 140 trillion. This milestone comes after four halving cycles and more than a decade of exponential growth: from gigahash speeds in 2010 to terahash in 2011, petahash in 2013, exahash in 2016, and now zetahash in 2025. The milestone reflects the relentless industrialization of Bitcoin mining, even as margins remain under pressure.
Against this backdrop, August’s production updates, compiled by TheEnergyMag, show diverging dynamics between the largest operators and a cluster of smaller, second-tier miners. The biggest fleets, led by MARA, IREN, CleanSpark and Cango, were mostly stable, with realized hashrates changing only slightly from July.
MARA maintained its lead at 46.3 EH/s, producing 705 BTC with a modest 5% month-on-month increase. IREN and Cango both reported hashrates near 44 EH/s, producing 668 BTC and 664 BTC, respectively. CleanSpark mined 657 BTC at 43.2 EH/s, while Riot recorded a 7% increase to 40.5 EH/s with 477 BTC equivalent. Riot’s growth was less about hardware expansion and more about accounting: TheEnergyMag calculates realized hashrate to include proprietary capacity used beyond direct mining, such as cloud mining or power credits. Riot booked $16.1 million in power credits and demand response programs during August, which inflated its realized hashrate relative to its on-rack fleet.
By contrast, several smaller players expanded far more aggressively. Bitdeer boosted realized hashrate by nearly 40% to 24.6 EH/s, producing 375 BTC. HIVE climbed almost 28% to 16.2 EH/s, yielding 247 BTC, while Cipher advanced more than 18% to 15.8 EH/s with 236 BTC mined. Canaan, better known as a hardware manufacturer, also posted double-digit growth, rising over 15% to 6.4 EH/s. This reinforces what was noted in a previous Miner Weekly issue: manufacturers are carrying on the arms race by utilizing their own inventories when institutional demand slows, effectively competing with their mining customers.
Not all operators shared in the expansion. Ionic slipped nearly 6% to 6.8 EH/s, while Core Scientific (NASDAQ: CORZ) fell 3.7% to 10.8 EH/s. BitFuFu recorded the steepest drop, cutting realized hashrate by 30% to 3.6 EH/s, though it still managed to produce 55 BTC.
The August scorecard highlights a shifting competitive landscape. The largest miners still control the most powerful fleets, but their expansion has slowed just as the network scales to record levels. In contrast, smaller miners and equipment makers are rapidly mobilizing capacity, either through opportunistic deployments or energizing unsold machines. As Bitcoin enters its zetahash era with difficulty set to reach unprecedented heights, the ability of these second-tier operators to grow amid tightening economics signals a new phase in the industry’s evolution.
Hardware and Infrastructure News
- Bitdeer Launches SEALMINER A3 as Bitcoin Mining Arms Race Shifts to Manufacturers – TheEnergyMag
- Greenidge Generation Closes Sale of its Mississippi Bitcoin Mining Facility – Link
- BUZZ HPC Closes Acquisition of 7.2 MW Toronto Site to Build Data Centre for Sovereign AI Infrastructure – Link
Corporate News
- IREN Cofounders Cash Out $66M as Stock Hits Record High – TheEnergyMag
- Soluna Secures $100M Credit Line from Generate Capital at ~15% Borrowing Cost – TheEnergyMag
- Bitfury CEO Sheds 5% of Cipher’s Stock Since July Rally – TheEnergyMag
Financial News
- Bitcoin Miners Market Cap Nears $50B as Stocks Stage Comeback – TheEnergyMag
- Bitcoin mining stocks outperform BTC as investors bet on AI pivots – Cointelegraph
Feature
- How Laos plans to pay for its dam-building spree: cryptocurrency mining – SCMP
