Bitcoin miners are already doing greater than defending the Bitcoin base chain. In line with Rootstock’s Q1 2026 Merged Mining Report, 84.01% of the full Bitcoin hashrate contributed to securing Rootstock through the quarter, giving Bitcoin DeFi a hashrate-backed safety declare.
The community averaged 833.92 EH/s Rootstock hashrate.
The quantity is stunning as a result of Rootstock sits alongside Bitcoin quite than competing for a separate set of machines. It’s a Bitcoin sidechain that makes use of merge mining, permitting Bitcoin mining swimming pools to submit work to Rootstock whereas persevering with to mine Bitcoin.
Underneath Rootstock, miners can earn extra $BTC-Rewards denominated from Rootstock community charges with out including {hardware} or disrupting your Bitcoin operations.
Precision issues. The metric tracks the hash fee contributed throughout mining swimming pools quite than the intent of particular person miners, leaving demand for DeFi unanswered.
It exhibits that a big portion of Bitcoin’s hash energy, as measured by Rootstock’s Q1 methodology, was additionally getting used to safe a Bitcoin sensible contract layer.
That makes the report a sign for Bitcoin mining and DeFi infrastructure. Bitcoin DeFi, usually known as BTCFi, is the broader class that Rootstock is attempting to guard by way of merged mining.
The subsequent sign is whether or not that safety interprets into vital payment income, liquidity and person exercise.
What does hashrate quantity imply for Bitcoin DeFi?
Merged mining permits a miner to mine multiple appropriate proof-of-work chain on the similar time. CryptoSlate Its personal glossary defines merge mining as mining multiple cryptocurrency with out sacrificing hash fee.
Within the case of Rootstock, the sensible declare is that Bitcoin miners can reuse their current infrastructure to guard Rootstock whereas nonetheless specializing in Bitcoin.
Rootstock mentioned that 93.10% of the mining pool’s noticed hashrate participated in merged mining through the first quarter. Their full report lists Foundry USA, AntPool, F2Pool, ViaBTC, and SecPool among the many largest contributors to Rootstock’s hashrate safety.
Foundry USA accounted for 36.62% of Rootstock’s reported distribution, adopted by AntPool with 19.92%, F2Pool with 12.79%, ViaBTC with 11.79%, and SecPool with 4.98%.
Participation within the mining pool determines whether or not merged mining stays a distinct segment technical choice or turns into a safety layer backed by main Bitcoin infrastructure.
A sequence secured by a small pool of marginal hashing energy carries a distinct danger profile than one which receives work from swimming pools already close to the middle of Bitcoin mining.
Rootstock’s Bitcoin hashrate information makes use of seven-day averages from blockchain.com, and that Rootstock hashrate is extrapolated from the proportion of Bitcoin blocks which can be additionally used to mine Rootstock blocks.
That methodology turns the quantity into a security participation metric. Pockets utilization, credit score exercise, buying and selling quantity, and protocol income require separate measurements.
Hashrate explains the safety ground, whereas charges and utilization clarify whether or not that ground turns into precious to the broader Bitcoin economic system.
Group distribution additionally figures prominently within the dialogue. A excessive holder ratio can disguise focus, and Rootstock’s personal chart exhibits that the safety base depends closely on a small group of huge swimming pools.
Why miners may care now
Bitcoin mining margins have come beneath strain. CoinShares’ Q1 2026 Bitcoin Mining Report described This autumn 2025 because the hardest quarter for miners because the April 2024 halving.
The agency mentioned the hash worth was compressed by the Bitcoin worth drop in late 2025 and excessive community competitors. It fell additional to round $29 per PH/day within the first quarter, and CoinShares estimated that 15% to twenty% of the worldwide mining fleet was unprofitable at round $30 per PH/day.
The Hashrate index has a hash worth of $35.78 per PH/day and a Bitcoin community hashrate of 984.34 EH/s.
CryptoSlate market information exhibits $BTC it trades round $77,300 with a market capitalization near $1.55 trillion, whereas its market rating positioned Bitcoin dominance at 60.1%.
At that worth, 3,125 $BTC The block subsidy stays the principle mining reward. Extra payment streams turn into simpler to grasp in enterprise phrases as miners handle {hardware} upgrades, power prices, treasury gross sales, and synthetic intelligence or high-performance computing alternatives.
Rootstock’s pitch to miners is {that a} pool can add one other supply of charges whereas utilizing the identical proof of labor. It is a modest declare, nevertheless it’s additionally why the Q1 hashrate determine is extra related.
Merged mining provides Bitcoin miners an choice on the expansion of BTCFi charges whereas preserving their core operation anchored to Bitcoin.
For $BTC headlines, the implication is totally different. If miners can safe Bitcoin’s native sensible contract infrastructure with out diverting Bitcoin’s hash energy, then a part of the BTCFi stack is already hooked up to Bitcoin’s financial engine.
The safety basis exists earlier than the market has determined how precious that infrastructure will likely be.
The primary quarter determine seems first as an choice for miners after which as a problem for builders: changing a strong safety base into common financial exercise.
The revenue impact stays unquantified. Merged mining might make sense even when charges are small as a result of the incremental operational burden is restricted, based on Rootstock mechanics, however materiality nonetheless is dependent upon the precise payment movement.
The place safety has to turn into use
Hashrate can improve sooner than utilization. Messari’s State of Rootstock Q1 2025 report confirmed that Rootstock’s merged mining share averaged 81% in that quarter after the mixing of Foundry and SpiderPool.
In the identical report, Messari recorded weaker person metrics, together with fewer energetic addresses, fewer new addresses, and a lower in DeFi TVL.
That earlier cut up is the important thing caveat to the brand new Q1 2026 determine. Excessive participation in merged mining could make a community tougher to assault, whereas debtors, merchants, stablecoin liquidity, and builders decide whether or not the safe community turns into economically energetic.
Security is a prerequisite for monetary exercise, whereas payment revenue and utilization present whether or not folks use the rails.
The mining report obtainable for the primary quarter of 2026 leaves a very powerful quantity within the mining economic system out of the desk: precise rootstock payment revenue for miners.
Rootstock says rewards are paid in Bitcoin with community charges, however the Q1 mining report focuses on hashrate participation and pool distribution quite than a breakdown of miners’ revenue.
The small scale of Rootstock’s token economic system reinforces that warning. cryptoslate Market information exhibits that rBTC, the Bitcoin-pegged asset utilized in Rootstock, has a market capitalization of roughly $19.9 million. RIF, the Rootstock Infrastructure Framework token, is bigger, round $74.4 million, however nonetheless modest by crypto sector requirements.
Taken collectively, these figures present that Rootstock’s safety footprint is way bigger than the market worth presently assigned to the core belongings of its ecosystem.
Rootstock has proven that almost all of Bitcoin hashrate can safe the BTCFi infrastructure by way of merge mining. Nevertheless it nonetheless wants exercise and payment information to point out that the infrastructure is turning into economically essential to miners and $BTC headlines.
The subsequent take a look at is economical. If Rootstock’s payment revenue, energetic addresses, transaction quantity, liquidity and utility utilization stay modest, merged mining will look like a precious choice for miners and a safety function for customers.
If these metrics develop alongside sustained participation by mining swimming pools, the argument adjustments: Bitcoin’s hashrate would assist miners become profitable from an actual Rootstock sensible contract economic system secured by way of merged mining.
For now, Rootstock’s 84.01% determine provides Bitcoin DeFi a stronger infrastructure declare. It exhibits {that a} Bitcoin sensible contract layer can sit on high of a big portion of Bitcoin mining work whereas miners proceed with their core enterprise.
The toughest half is changing that safety headline into sufficient exercise and costs for miners and $BTC Holders ought to fear past the hashrate quantity.
