Bitcoin miners have been handed a much-needed boost after the cryptocurrency’s hashprice rose by 20.41% in four days, reaching levels not seen since May.
Hashprice increased from $31.80 per petahash per second (PH/s) on 18 August to $38.29 per PH/s on Saturday, 22 August. The measure estimates how much revenue a miner can generate from a defined amount of computing power, in this case one petahash.
The rise follows a recent rally in the price of Bitcoin and offers some relief to mining companies that have faced increasingly narrow margins in recent months.
One petahash is equivalent to about 1,000 terahashes per second (TH/s), and several of the most powerful mining machines now operate at or near that level.
At the current hashprice, a Bitmain Antminer S23 Hydro 3U, which produces 1.16 PH/s, can generate an estimated daily profit of $17.86 when electricity costs $0.10 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).
The S23 Hydro 3U is currently the most profitable machine in the SHA-256 application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) market. Bitdeer’s Sealminer A4 Ultra Hydro ranks second, with processing power of 886 TH/s.
Using the same electricity price and current hashprice, the Sealminer A4 Ultra Hydro is estimated to make $13.75 per day. ASIC machines produced by companies including MicroBT and Canaan are also generating consistent profits where operators have access to cheaper electricity.
Mining difficulty is the next key factor for the industry, although current indicators suggest it could move in miners’ favour. Bitcoin’s average block time is running slightly above the usual 10-minute mark, at 10 minutes and five seconds.
Based on the current rate, the difficulty adjustment scheduled for 22 August 2026 is projected to result in a decrease of about 1%.
A total of 133 mining pools, ranging from major operations to smaller and solo-style participants, were directing computing power towards the Bitcoin network at the time of writing.
Foundry USA was the leading pool on 22 August, contributing 214.73 exahashes per second (EH/s). Antpool was second with 156.17 EH/s, followed by F2pool on 110.62 EH/s.
ViaBTC ranked fourth with 91.02 EH/s, while Secpool and Spiderpool shared fifth place, each contributing about 65.07 EH/s.
Bitcoin’s total network computing power had been below 900 EH/s but had risen to nearly 922 EH/s by Saturday. That puts the network within reach of the zettahash range, with one zettahash equal to 1,000 exahashes.
Despite the improvement in hashprice, data from newhedge.io shows that Bitcoin mining revenue in August remains below July’s total. Miners still have a week left in the month to reduce the difference, however.
So far in August, miners have earned $682.69m from block subsidies and transaction fees. Only $5.14m of that total has come from transaction fees, leaving the industry some way short of the $875m collected during July.
Mining companies have faced sustained pressure since Bitcoin fell from its record high of just above $126,000 in October 2025. The latest rally has eased some of that strain and improved conditions for operators using SHA-256 mining equipment.
The key uncertainty is whether the improvement can be sustained. For now, the stronger Bitcoin price and higher hashprice are providing miners with a welcome reprieve, but the longer-term direction of the market remains unclear.
