Bitcoin markets remain under pressure from macro forces, while the network is once again experiencing hashrate volatility linked to China-based shutdowns. Although consecutive difficulty declines may sound supportive, continued weakness in BTC price has kept hashprice stuck near historic lows. At the same time, rare outliers persist, with a solo miner once again defying the odds. We also take a deeper look at how shifting block usage and on-chain activity are reshaping fee dynamics, before closing with an overview of MicroBT’s latest M70 series launch.
FOMC Reinforces Caution Across Risk Assets
Hashrate Volatility Returns Amid China-Linked Shutdowns
Hashrate Declines Also Hits Litecoin
Consecutive Difficulty Declines
Hashprice Still Near Lows
16 Blocks Solo Mined via CKPool in 2025
Fee Revenue Fails to Materialize – Premium Member Exclusive
Low Block Weight Signals a Shift in On-Chain Dynamics – Premium Member Exclusive
Structural Headwinds to On-Chain Activity in 2025 – Premium Member Exclusive
MicroBT Caps the Year with the M70 Series
FOMC Reinforces Caution Across Risk Assets
Last week’s FOMC meeting was a key macro event for December, particularly given its potential impact on risk assets and Bitcoin. Markets entered the meeting looking for clarity. Instead, they received no major surprises, but continued uncertainty around the path of interest rates and economic growth. That uncertainty matters as markets tend to default to caution rather than aggressively reprice risk.
Bitcoin fell below $86,000 on Monday, tracking a broader sell-off across equities and other risk-on assets as investors rotated away from high-growth exposure and toward value-oriented positions. The asset is now down more than 30% from its early October peak above $126,000. As the macro backdrop did not materially improve, the near-term outlook for Bitcoin remains challenged.
From a technical perspective, bulls need to regain momentum. A short-term higher high and a reclaim of the 50-day moving average would be the first step. Beyond that, the next key level is the 200-day moving average, currently near $108,500, which would need to be reclaimed to signal a more durable shift in trend.
Hashrate Volatility Returns Amid China-Linked Shutdowns
The Bitcoin network has seen several sharp hashrate drawdowns in 2025. After reaching an all-time high of 1,128 EH/s on October 21, hashrate fell to 1,038 EH/s by December 8. This decline of 90 EH/s, or roughly 8%, was not an isolated event.
Earlier in the year, hashrate experienced even worse volatility. In February, network hashrate fell from 856 EH/s to 750 EH/s, a 106 EH/s or 12.4% retrace. In early April, network hashrate surged to 929 EH/s before dropping abruptly by 112 EH/s (12%) to a monthly low of 817 EH/s. An even larger correction followed in June. After peaking near 950 EH/s on June 13, the network experienced its steepest decline of the year, falling to around 802 EH/s. A loss of 148 EH/s or 15.6%.
At first glance, the recent pullback might be attributed to compressed mining margins. However, growing speculation on X suggests a different catalyst: China. Reports indicate that mining operations in Xinjiang have been progressively shut down following a new directive issued on December 5, ordering the immediate closure of all mining activities in the region. Although China officially banned crypto mining in 2021, some operators continued running quietly on cheap power.
According to Kevin Zhang, former VP at Foundry, approximately 2 GW of Bitcoin mining capacity has now been shut down in Xinjiang alone, leaving an estimated 500,000 mining machines displaced and searching for new locations.
Hashrate Declines Also Hits Litecoin
The impact of the China shutdowns does not appear to be isolated to Bitcoin alone. Litecoin’s network hashrate also experienced a sharp and sudden decline over the same period. Total hashrate fell from approximately 3.9 PH/s to a low near 2.7 PH/s, representing a loss of 1.2 PH/s, or roughly 30% of the network. The magnitude and speed of this drawdown are difficult to reconcile with normal miner behavior, particularly in the absence of a major Litecoin-specific economic shock.
Consecutive Difficulty Declines
On Thursday, December 11, the Bitcoin network recorded its third consecutive downward difficulty adjustment, declining by 0.74%. This marks the first time such a streak has occurred since June–July of last year. The network entered 2025 at 109.78 T and has since climbed to 148.2 T, an increase of 38.42 T, or roughly 34.99% year to date. Even after three consecutive negative adjustments, difficulty is still just 4% below its all-time high of 155.97 T, reached three epochs ago.
Hashprice Still Near Lows
Despite the recent streak of downward difficulty adjustments, Bitcoin’s price action continues to weigh on miner revenues. Hashprice has remained below the $40/PH/day threshold for more than a month, signalling sustained pressure on mining economics.
Currently, hashprice sits around $36/PH/day, just $1 above the record low reached on November 21. This highlights that recent difficulty relief has been insufficient to offset weak price momentum, leaving miners operating in one of the most compressed revenue environments on record.
16 Blocks Solo Mined via CKPool in 2025
Bitcoin solo mining allows miners to compete independently to find and validate a block. When successful, the miner receives the full 3.125 BTC block subsidy plus transaction fees, paid directly to their wallet. No revenue sharing and no intermediaries. In effect, solo mining is Bitcoin’s most competitive lottery, with individual miners competing against Exahashes of global compute.
Last Friday, another solo miner successfully mined a valid Bitcoin block, earning a 3.13 BTC reward valued at approximately $288,383 at the time. This was achieved with just 270 TH/s of hashrate spread across three workers. This representing roughly 0.00002% of the network’s total computing power. At that scale, the statistical probability of finding a block is estimated at 1 in 30,000 per day, highlighting the extreme variance inherent in solo mining.
Despite the astronomical odds, solo miners managed to find multiple blocks in 2025. Digital Mining Solutions verified a total of 16 solo-mined blocks discovered via CKPool over the course of the year. While these events are rare and highly probabilistic, they underscore why solo mining continues to appeal to a subset of miners seeking sovereignty, asymmetric upside, and direct participation in Bitcoin’s base layer.
Fee Revenue Fails to Materialize – Premium Member Exclusive
Low Block Weight Signals a Shift in On-Chain Dynamics – Premium Member Exclusive
Structural Headwinds to On-Chain Activity in 2025 – Premium Member Exclusive
MicroBT Caps the Year with the M70 Series
MicroBT used the Bitcoin MENA Conference in Abu Dhabi to unveil its next-generation WhatsMiner M70 series, marking one of the company’s most significant hardware updates in recent years. The line-up spans three efficiency tiers—12.5 J/TH, 13.5 J/TH, and 14.5 J/TH—and includes air-cooled, immersion-cooled, and hydro-cooled models designed to meet a wide range of operational requirements. Hashrate output varies substantially across the series, beginning at 214 TH/s for the entry-level air-cooled unit and scaling up to 1 PH/s for the industrial-grade M79S, one of the highest-density ASIC miners ever released.
Several technical changes indicate a meaningful evolution in MicroBT’s design philosophy. The new air-cooled models introduce an updated exterior architecture that departs from the company’s long-standing chassis layout, enabling improved airflow management and higher performance. The high-density models adopt a 3U rack-mounted form factor, a clear signal that MicroBT is aligning its hardware with modern data-center standards and the broader convergence between Bitcoin mining and HPC infrastructure. At the top end of the series, the hydro-cooled M79S breaks the 1 PH/s threshold, reinforcing MicroBT’s focus on maximizing power density and future-proofing its portfolio.
With the M70 series, MicroBT now competes directly in the sub-13 J/TH efficiency class, advancing both energy performance and deployment flexibility. The broad range of models gives operators more precise control over cooling design, power planning, and rack-level density, making the series adaptable to everything from mid-sized hosting facilities to hyperscale mining campuses.
