Analysis: Iran Situation Pushes Up Energy Costs, Bitcoin Hash Rate Decline Intensifies Miner Pressure

CoinNetwork · 2026-03-18T16:22:34+00:00

Middle East conflict drives oil prices higher, Bitcoin hashrate drops approximately 8%, miners face pressure with prices below $72,000. Difficulty adjustment expected to decrease 8%, marking the second-largest adjustment in five years. Intensified miner competition and low transaction fees compress profit margins.

CoinNetwork

2026-03-18 16:22:34

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Crypto World News reports that the increase in oil prices caused by Middle East conflicts has led to a significant drop in Bitcoin hash rate, putting pressure on miners and the overall market. Over the past week, network hash rate has decreased by about 8%, down to 920 EH/s, indicating a possible new round of miner capitulation, which is usually accompanied by downward price pressure. Currently, Bitcoin is trading below $72,000, about 5% lower than the Monday high. The network is expected to undergo approximately an 8% difficulty adjustment, the second largest negative adjustment in the past five years. Previously, in mid-February, Bitcoin experienced a historic large difficulty drop, showing high volatility in mining activity. Analysts point out that miners are under pressure due to increased competition, persistently low transaction fees, and Bitcoin price fluctuations, which compress profit margins. Many publicly listed mining companies are diversifying into AI and high-performance computing, while increasing Bitcoin sales to maintain operations, which also exerts some resistance on Bitcoin’s price.

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