HIVE Digital co-founder Frank Holmes stated this week that several sanctioned nations are actively mining Bitcoin (BTC) in secret, turning to the crypto as an alternative revenue stream in the face of U.S. financial restrictions.

Holmes made the claims during a recent interview with the Roundtable. He tied a recent drop in global mining difficulty to military strikes targeting power infrastructure in Iran, suggesting the country’s military was using energy resources to mine Bitcoin and generate hard currency.

The comments reflect a broader trend in which governments cut off from traditional financial systems are leveraging crypto mining to fill economic gaps.

Holmes said this is not limited to Iran, implying that other countries facing US sanctions are also participating in similar operations, though much of it remains undisclosed.

He further claimed that Bitcoin has become a strategic asset, especially for nations struggling to access dollars. Mining provides a direct route to accumulate value outside the traditional financial ecosystem.

Holmes said that disruptions to mining facilities can now be observed in network-level data such as hash rate fluctuations.

HIVE ramping up production

While pointing to adversaries of the US using crypto mining as a financial lifeline, HIVE Digital is pursuing growth in U.S.-aligned nations.

The company recently expanded its footprint in Paraguay, acquiring infrastructure to scale operations more rapidly. The decision required divesting a portion of its Bitcoin holdings, but Holmes described it as a strategic trade-off to accelerate production.

Paraguay’s supportive regulatory stance and energy resources make it a key location for HIVE’s expansion, particularly compared to more politically volatile countries in the region.

The move comes amid growing sentiment that Bitcoin mining will continue to flourish in jurisdictions aligned with U.S. economic interests, particularly under the current administration.

HIVE has now surpassed 14 exahashes per second (EH/s) in mining capacity, with a goal of reaching 25 EH/s by the end of November. At current output, the company is generating approximately $315 million in annualized revenue, placing it among the top contenders in terms of efficiency and scale.

The remarks highlight a shifting landscape where mining activity is not just about profitability, but increasingly intertwined with global alliances, sanctions evasion, and power projection through digital infrastructure.

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A fast‑moving fight over mining power consumed Monero’s weekend after Sergey Ivancheglo used X to promote an “economic” campaign to dominate the network’s hashrate, which was met by community resistance.

The fight escalated after Ivancheglo, the figure behind Qubic and better known as Come‑from‑Beyond (CFB), confirmed the takeover intentions with an incentive-driven 51% attack.

As a response, the community gathered in the “supportxmr.com” pool to hold the majority of Monero’s mining capacity.

The 51% takeover plan

Qubic’s plan surfaced across X and Reddit as a pay‑to‑switch mining campaign. By offering richer payouts than ordinary pools, Qubic aims to attract enough Monero miners to its pool to surpass 51% of the network hash, a threshold that would enable it to orphan rivals’ blocks, delay confirmations, and potentially censor transactions. 

Ivancheglo publicly flagged Aug. 2 to Aug. 31 as a window of elevated risk and urged exchanges to raise Monero deposit confirmations, framing the move as a precaution during their “test.”

On Reddit, Monero miners and users viewed the campaign as a live 51% attack attempt, driven by incentives rather than a code exploit. Posts in forums dedicated to the Monero community on Reddit tracked Qubic’s pool share and warned that concentration could enable orphaned blocks, delayed confirmations, or transaction censorship. 

A thread titled “Qubic/Sergey Ivancheglo 51% attack plans” complained of “silence from most devs,” while another, “The timeline for the 51% attack is August,” claimed the pool had mined 31 of the last 100 blocks and urged a community response.

Community reaction

Analyst Dan Dadybayo explained on an X thread how Monero was under attack through an incentive campaign, arguing that intent is secondary to the risk of centralization when a single pool can outbid the rest of the network for hashpower. 

His follow‑ups described why Monero’s CPU‑friendly RandomX and highly mobile miners make such an attack plausible if incentives are aligned. 

The Monero subreddit’s tone oscillated between alarm and organization.

Members of the Monero community highlighted on X and Reddit Qubic’s rise into the top tier of pools through richer payouts and warned that waiting for 40% and 50% dominance would be too late.

The reaction led to the community rallying behind the mining pool “supportxmr.com” to battle Qubic in an attempt to lead Monero’s mining capacity. As of press time, the 4,970 miners composing the pool accounted for 28.7% of the network hash rate, having mined 36 out of the last 100 blocks.

Nevertheless, a Qubic spokesperson told CryptoSlate that the 51% takeover will still be attempted, adding:

“The goal is not to harm, such as tx reversals, but to make every miner on the Monero network join the QUBIC mining pool.”

Furthermore, Qubic highlighted a June proposal in which the community must decide whether other blocks should be orphaned in the event of a 51% attack. Among what the proposal portrays as benefits are reduced fees for Monero users, boosted revenue for miners, integration with Qubic miners, and a “practical test of a 51% attack and possibility to analyze its impact on XMR price.”

As of press time, there is no commentary in the proposal.

Benevolent attack

Ivancheglo dismissed alarm as “fear‑mongering,” even as his project urged exchanges to increase Monero confirmation thresholds, escalating concern across Reddit and crypto Twitter. 

He framed the effort as industry research. He said he was “trying to find a countermeasure to Qubic’s 51% domination,” a claim that did little to calm Monero users who worried the “demo” could do real damage. 

In addition, Ivancheglo said:

“This is very important to the #cryptocurrency industry because one day we all may face a non-benevolent attack.”

The uneven tone has led to rampant speculation that Qubic may want to normalize a majority‑hash posture while portraying it as benevolent.

The episode highlights that proof-of-work networks can be pressured not only by raw hashrate rentals but also by token-driven incentive loops that outpay organic mining.

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The brokerage firm that operates the largest US electronic trading platform by daily average revenue is reportedly leading a funding round for the crypto and stablecoin infrastructure startup Zero Hash.

Zero Hash provides the backend infrastructure that enables banks, brokerages and fintech companies offer cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets to their customers. 

Citing sources familiar with the matter, Fortune reports that Zero Hash is poised to raise about $100 million at a nearly $1 billion valuation in a new funding round spearheaded by Interactive Brokers. 

In 2022, the startup raised $105 million in a Series D round that saw the participation of the private investment firm Bain Capital, American hedge fund Point72 Ventures and fintech venture capital firm Nyca. Citing data from PitchBook, Fortune reports that Zero Hash was valued at $340 million after the Series D capital raise. 

The latest push to raise additional capital comes amid the growing popularity of stablecoins – cryptocurrencies which are pegged to another asset such as the US dollar or commodities.

In 2022, the payment processing company Stripe tapped Zero Hash’s infrastructure to launch an embeddable and customizable fiat-to-crypto on-ramp solution. And in 2024, Zero Hash teamed up with Securitize, a real-world asset tokenization platform, to allow qualified institutions to convert the USDC stablecoin into US dollars. 

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Bitcoin is alive and kicking, spitting out an impressive hashrate count like never before.

Bitcoin’s network processing power reaches an unprecedented Zetahash (Zh/s) per second, marking a major milestone in the 16-year history of cryptocurrency.

Multiple blockchain tracking services confirmed achievement between April 4-5, 2023, but we disagree with the exact timing of when the thresholds cross.

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Various trackers report different dates for historic milestones

Zetahash (Zh/s) is a unit of computing power used to measure the hash rate of Bitcoin, reflecting the computing power used to protect the Bitcoin network through mining.

Bitcoin hashrate peaked at 1.025 ZH/s on April 5, according to data from Mempool.space. The BTC frame metric showed a slightly earlier breakthrough on April 4th at 1.02 ZH/s.

Meanwhile, Coinwarz reported an even higher peak of 1.1 Zh/s at Block Height 890,915 on April 4, but also suggested that on March 24, the network first hit the 1 Zh/s mark.

The difference comes from the way each service calculates the hashrate. Blockchain analyst Jameson Lopp previously pointed out that using one “trailing block” and five blocks for estimation could lead to a difference of more than 0.04 Zh/s.

Mitchell Askew, head analyst at Blockware Solutions, said seeing raw hashrate metrics can be deceived due to random variations in block time. He noted that Bitcoin’s 30-day moving average hashrate remains around 0.845 Zh/s.

The network shows the greatest growth since 2016

This achievement represents the pronounced growth of the Bitcoin network. The current hashrate of 1 Zh/s equals 1,000 evash per second, indicating a 1,000-fold increase since late January 2016, when the network first reached 1 Eh/s.

To put this computational power into perspective, Bitcoin processes around 40,000 times more calculations per second than Litecoin, the second largest cryptocurrency network. Based on Coinwarz data, Litecoin currently runs at just 2.49 peta hash per second.

Commercial mining operations promote hashrate growth

According to Askew, the surge in hashrates is consistent with increasing competition among commercial Bitcoin mining companies. Miners are doubling, expanding their sites and stuffing them with more efficient machines, he said. However, he warned that inefficient miners could struggle unless Bitcoin prices rise in the coming months.

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At least 24 publicly available companies operate Bitcoin mining equipment, according to Companiesmarketcap.com. Mara Holdings leads the pack with over 50 EH/s computing power. Other key contributors include Riot Platforms, Core Scientific, CleanSpark, Hut 8 Mining and Terawulf.

According to the hashrate index, the majority of the network’s hashrate flows through major mining pools, with Foundry USA and Antpools controlling the largest shares.

Record hashrates coincides with market slump

The network’s technical achievements occurred during a rapid market decline. Bitcoin price fell 8% in 24 hours to $77,210, but US stocks have experienced what analysts called their biggest two-day loss to date.

Gemini Images, TradingView charts

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin is advocating for deeper research into the Poseidon hash function as the network explores ways to improve zero-knowledge (ZK) proof efficiency.

In a Feb. 26 post on X, Buterin encouraged cryptographers to participate in a security analysis program for Poseidon while quoting a message that extended the funding application deadline to March 15.

He stated:

“We are seriously considering migrating Ethereum to the Poseidon hash to optimize zk-prover friendliness, so having more information about its security properties is extremely high value.”

What is Poseidon?

Poseidon is a cryptographic hash function designed specifically for zero-knowledge applications.

Unlike traditional hash functions such as SHA-256, Poseidon is optimized for zero-knowledge (ZK) proofs, a cryptographic technique that allows transactions to be verified without revealing sensitive details.

ZK proofs are becoming increasingly crucial in Ethereum’s scaling efforts, particularly for rollups that process transactions off-chain before finalizing them on the main blockchain. Poseidon’s efficiency could reduce computational costs, making these solutions faster and more accessible.

According to Poseidon Cryptanalysis:

“Poseidon hash function has been used in numerous Ethereum applications that deal with verifiable computation. It is among the top performers at recent STARK benchmarks by StarkNet, which makes it a promising candidate for the use at Ethereum L1 for various protocols that employ ZK proofs.”

Community reactions

While some in the crypto space view Poseidon’s potential adoption as a positive step for Ethereum’s efficiency, others have raised concerns.

Ye Zhang, a co-founder of the Ethereum Layer 2 project Scroll, questioned whether Poseidon’s advantages outweigh its trade-offs.

Zhang pointed out that Poseidon’s various configurations could limit SNARK choices, making it less flexible. He also noted that Poseidon is significantly slower than alternatives like Blake and Keccak, which could create bottlenecks unless Layer 2 solutions adjust for compatibility.

Zhang added that Scroll initially used Poseidon but would revert to the Merkle Patricia Tree (MPT) with Keccak in a future upgrade due to performance considerations.

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