Dispatches · Monitor briefs · A BTChub original

Monitor brief: Week 34, Aug 17–Aug 23, 2026

Bitcoin rose 23.7% to $77,738; a typical modern miner could pay up to 8.0¢ per kWh for power ($80/MWhMWhMegawatt-hour, 1,000 kWh: the unit wholesale power is priced in. $76 per MWh is 7.6¢ per kWh, the unit on a household bill.), and wholesale power at ERCOTERCOTThe Electric Reliability Council of Texas: the operator of most of Texas's power grid and its wholesale electricity market, home to many US Bitcoin miners. Houston hub averaged 3.8¢ ($38/MWh).

In plain words: a typical modern miner could pay up to 8.0¢ per kWh for power that week and still cover it. Wholesale power at the ERCOT Houston hub averaged 3.8¢ per kWh, so running paid on 5 of 5 days (by daily average).

• Bitcoin close$77,738up 23.7% on the week
• HashpricehashpriceWhat a miner earns per unit of hashpower per day — revenue divided by hashrate. It falls as competition rises or price drops.See it on the site →$38.33/PH/daywhat 1 PH/sPH/sPetahashes per second: a quadrillion guesses a second, the unit for a fleet of mining machines. One current machine does about 0.2 PH/s (200 TH/s). of machines earned a day from new coins, at the Aug 23 close
• Breakevenbreakeven power priceThe most a miner can pay for electricity and still cover it from what its machines earn. Below it, running pays; above it, switching off saves money. Electricity only.See it on the site → power$80/MWh= 8.0¢ per kWh: the most a 20 J/THJ/THJoules per terahash: how much electricity a mining machine burns for each unit of work. Lower is more efficient. New machines are around 15–20; older ones 30 or more. machine could pay for power
• DifficultydifficultyA protocol setting that adjusts every ~2 weeks to keep blocks arriving about every 10 minutes, rising and falling with hashrate.See it on the site →+0.00%mining got harder, so each machine earns less (vs the prior weekly sample, 2026-08-19)

Week 35, Aug 24–Aug 30, 2026 →