# Bitcoin Spent 280 Days Below Estimated Mining Cost Before Rebound

By Enna Lee

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/investing/24399
Published: 2026-09-26T10:33:57.000Z
Updated: 2026-09-26T10:33:57.000Z
Section: Investing

> Bitcoin briefly moved above its estimated $85,000 average production cost before falling back below the threshold, extending pressure on miners.

Bitcoin (BTC) spent 280 consecutive days below an estimated average production cost of about $85,000 before briefly moving above the threshold this week, extending pressure on miners beyond the roughly 224-day stretch recorded in 2018.

Bitcoin closed at $86,620 on Sept. 21 and $86,208 on Sept. 22. It fell back below the estimated cost on Sept. 23, closing at $84,397. As of 6 a.m. ET (10 a.m. UTC) Sept. 26, BTC traded at $84,069, about 1.1% below the estimate.

The production-cost measure includes the average electricity and equipment expenses required to mine one bitcoin. When prices remain below that level, higher-cost miners face pressure to sell more bitcoin, shut down machines or leave the market.

Miners have responded by moving equipment to areas with cheaper power, selling older machines, idling some hardware and retiring less-efficient equipment. Network computing power was about 19% below its October 2025 peak, while mining difficulty was down about 15%.

The seven-day average hash rate fell from about 1,153 exahashes per second in mid-October 2025 to about 916 EH/s on Sept. 26, a decline of about 20.6%. Mining difficulty dropped from 155.97 trillion on Oct. 29, 2025, to 132.76 trillion after the Sept. 19 adjustment.

Some miners are redirecting electricity and data-center capacity toward artificial intelligence computing. AI customers are paying premiums for existing power and facilities, while revenue from those operations has been more predictable than bitcoin mining this year.

The shift has slowed growth in network computing power and reduced the share of mining controlled by publicly listed companies as private and state-backed miners account for more of the network.

The next mining-difficulty adjustment is estimated for Oct. 4, with a projected decline of about 3.4%. The estimate can change with block-production speed.