what does the price mean

Bitcoin (BTC) network hashrate has fallen 4% over the past 30 days, the steepest decline in nearly two years.

At the same time, increased volatility and falling prices highlight growing stress among miners as profits dwindle. But investment management firm VanEck says miners' capitulation could signal rock bottom.

Bitcoin mining power declines as price slump and Chinese government shutdown hit network

VanEck's mid-December 2025 Bitcoin ChainCheck report highlighted that the 4% drop in network hash power was the largest since April 2024. This contraction comes in the midst of a difficult month for Bitcoin, which saw its price drop by about 9%.

Furthermore, volatility has skyrocketed, with 30-day realized volatility exceeding 45%, the highest level since April 2025.

Matthew Siegel and Patrick Busch said: “We typically expect rates to decline during significant declines in Bitcoin prices.”

Besides price-related pressures, Bitcoin's hashrate was also affected by developments in China. Last week, BeInCrypto reported that around 400,000 machines were forced offline in China's Xinjiang province.

This shutdown resulted in an estimated loss of 1.3 GW of capacity and had a significant impact on the network. China's computing power dropped by about 100 exahashes per second within 24 hours.

“This is likely due to a shift in power generation to AI demand, which could result in a loss of up to 10% of the Bitcoin network’s hashing power,” the analyst noted.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin's price performance has also worsened the economic situation for miners. According to VanEck, the 2022 version of the Bitmain S19 XP miner's break-even power price will decrease from $0.12 in December 2024 to $0.077 by mid-December 2025, representing a 36% drop. Siegel and Bush added:

“While miner profitability has been poor lately, many companies continue to mine despite the economic downturn because they believe in the future of Bitcoin. We believe up to 13 countries are mining with central government support to support the long-term hash rate of the Bitcoin network.”

Historical data suggests a bullish turn

Despite the recent pressure, VanEck noted that the decline in hashrate could be a “bullish contrarian signal.” The report, based on data since 2014, found that Bitcoin's forward returns tend to be higher when the network hash rate is shrinking.

BTC's 90-day forward return was approximately 65% ​​positive during the past 30 days when the hash rate was decreasing, but 54% during the periods when the hash rate was increasing.

Furthermore, the average 180-day forward return was slightly higher, at around 20.5% when hashrate was falling, compared to around 20.2% when hashrate was rising. This pattern holds true over time as well.

“In the 346 days since 2014 when the 90-day hashrate growth rate was negative, the 180-day forward BTC return was positive (77%) over that period and the average return was (+72%). Excluding these days, the 180-day forward BTC return was positive (~61%) over that period and the average return was (+48%),” the analyst revealed.

Technical patterns support bottom formation

On the technical side, market watchers are also outlining potential bottom signals. Market analysts, including Ted Pillows, have identified a three-day bullish break in Bitcoin, a pattern that has signaled market bottoms in its past two appearances.

“BTC 3D bullish divergence confirmed. The last two times this happened, Bitcoin formed a bottom,” Pirouz said.

It remains unclear whether Bitcoin will ultimately rise further. For now, major cryptocurrencies remain under pressure. At the time of writing, Bitcoin was trading at $88,066, down 1.01% in the past 24 hours, according to data from BeInCrypto Markets.

The article “Bitcoin Hashrate Drops 4% Amid Miner Stress: What It Means for Price” was first published on BeInCrypto.