The costs of Bitcoin mining skyrocketed more than 34% in two quarters, exceeding $70,000 per BTC due to the increase in hashrate and energy prices.

The network hashrate is approaching 1,000 EH/s, bringing the difficulty to a record 126 trillion and reducing miners' profits to just $52 per PH/s.

Miners are diversifying into AI and performance strategies as transaction fees fall below 1%, pressuring companies to innovate or fall behind.