Bitcoin miners have long been engaged in more than just securing the main network. According to the Rootstock merged mining report for the first quarter of 2026, 84.01% of bitcoin’s total hashrate participated in securing the Rootstock network. This allows the project to claim that Bitcoin DeFi relies on the security provided by bitcoin network power.
The average hashrate of Rootstock for the quarter was 833.92 EH/s.
This figure is especially interesting because Rootstock operates alongside bitcoin, not competing for separate equipment. The network is a bitcoin sidechain with merged mining support. Mining pools can simultaneously send computations to Rootstock and continue mining BTC.
According to Rootstock, this model gives miners additional income in BTC from network fees without buying new equipment or stopping main bitcoin mining.
But there is an important nuance. The metric accounts for hashrate coming through mining pools, not direct decisions by individual miners to support DeFi infrastructure.
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In fact, the report shows that a significant portion of BTC computing power, according to Rootstock methodology for Q1, was simultaneously used to secure the smart contract layer.
This is an important signal for the mining industry and Bitcoin DeFi infrastructure. The Bitcoin DeFi sector itself, often called BTCFi, is the area that Rootstock is trying to develop through merged mining.
Now the main question is different: can such security turn into real fees, liquidity, and user activity.
What This Hashrate Means for Bitcoin DeFi
Merged mining allows several compatible blockchains on the Proof-of-Work algorithm to be mined at the same time. Simply put, a miner can support multiple networks without losing computing power.
In the case of Rootstock, the idea is that bitcoin miners use existing infrastructure to secure Rootstock while continuing to mine BTC.
According to Rootstock, in the first quarter 93.10% of observed mining pool hashrate participated in merged mining. The report names the largest participants as Foundry USA, AntPool, F2Pool, ViaBTC, and SecPool.
Foundry USA accounted for 36.62% of Rootstock hashrate distribution, AntPool — 19.92%, F2Pool received 12.79%, ViaBTC — 11.79%, and SecPool — 4.98%.
It is the participation of large pools that determines whether merged mining remains a niche technical feature or becomes a full-fledged security layer for BTC infrastructure.
A network protected by a small amount of secondary hashrate has a very different risk level compared to a network where pools closer to the center of the bitcoin mining industry participate.
Rootstock also clarifies that bitcoin hashrate data is taken from seven-day averages on blockchain.com, and Rootstock hashrate is calculated based on the share of bitcoin blocks that were simultaneously used to mine Rootstock blocks.
That is, this methodology shows exactly the participation of hashrate in network security.
But wallet usage, lending activity, trading volumes, and protocol revenue require completely different metrics.
| What the Metric Shows | What Remains Unclear |
| A significant portion of bitcoin hashrate participated in securing Rootstock in Q1 | Whether individual miners made an independent decision to support Rootstock |
| Large bitcoin mining pools became part of Rootstock’s security system | How much each pool or miner actually earned from Rootstock fees |
| Bitcoin’s Proof-of-Work infrastructure is already used to secure smart contracts | How actively DeFi is used, TVL volume, number of users, and real product demand |
Hashrate shows the basic level of network security, but fees and real usage determine whether this security can bring value to the bitcoin economy.
Pool distribution deserves special attention. A high hashrate figure can hide strong concentration, and the Rootstock table itself shows that network security largely depends on a small group of large mining pools.
Why This May Be Important for Miners Right Now
Bitcoin mining margins continue to decline. The CoinShares report for the first quarter of 2026 says that Q4 2025 was the toughest period for miners since the halving in April 2024.
According to the company, mining profitability was pressured by the drop in bitcoin price at the end of 2025 and high competition within the network. In the first quarter, the figure dropped to about $29 per PH/day. CoinShares estimated that at around $30 per PH/day, 15% to 20% of global mining capacity was operating at a loss.
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Meanwhile, Hashrate Index estimates mining profitability at about $35.78 per PH/day, and the total bitcoin network hashrate at 984.34 EH/s.
BTC is currently trading around $77,300 with a market cap of about $1.55 trillion. Bitcoin’s market dominance is estimated at 60.1%.
At this price, the main source of income for miners is still the block reward of 3.125 BTC. But additional fees are becoming increasingly important, especially amid equipment upgrades, electricity costs, reserve sales, and growing miner interest in AI and high-performance computing.
This is where Rootstock tries to attract mining pools. The project offers an additional source of fees using the same Proof-of-Work.
That is why the hashrate figure for Q1 was important for the market.
Merged mining gives miners the opportunity to participate in fee growth within BTCFi without diverting power from the main bitcoin network.
For BTC holders, the conclusion looks a bit different. If miners can secure smart contract infrastructure within the BTC ecosystem without redirecting hashrate from the main network, then part of BTCFi is already effectively connected to the bitcoin economy.
The security foundation already exists, even if the market does not yet understand how valuable this infrastructure will be.
Therefore, the first quarter figure initially looks like an additional opportunity for miners, and only then as a challenge for developers: can they turn a strong security base into stable economic activity.
At the same time, the real effect on miner revenues remains unclear. According to Rootstock mechanics, merged mining may make sense even with small fees, since it creates almost no additional load. But it still all comes down to real cash flows within the network.
Where Security Should Turn Into Real Usage
Hashrate can grow much faster than user activity. The Messari State of Rootstock report for the first quarter of 2025 said that participation in merged mining then averaged 81% after Foundry and SpiderPool joined.
But in the same report, Messari recorded a deterioration in user metrics: a decrease in the number of active addresses, new addresses, and a drop in TVL in the DeFi segment.
This is the main nuance of the new Q1 2026 figure.
High participation in merged mining really makes the network more resilient to attacks. But users, traders, stablecoin liquidity, and developers still determine whether this infrastructure becomes economically active.
Security is only the foundation. Real fees and network usage show whether this infrastructure is actually used in practice.
At the same time, the Rootstock report for Q1 2026 lacks the most important metric for miners — real revenue from network fees.
Rootstock states that rewards are paid in BTC from network fees, but the report itself mainly focuses on hashrate and pool distribution, not miner income.
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Another nuance is related to the small size of the Rootstock network’s own economy. The capitalization of rBTC, the token pegged to bitcoin and used within Rootstock, is about $19.9 million. The infrastructure token RIF is valued at about $74.4 million, which is also quite modest by crypto market standards.
This creates an interesting contrast: the scale of Rootstock‘s infrastructure security now significantly exceeds the market value of its key ecosystem assets.
Rootstock has already shown that most of bitcoin’s hashrate can be used to secure BTCFi through merged mining. But the project still needs to prove that this infrastructure can generate real activity and fees, which are important for miners and BTC holders.
The next stage is purely economic.
If Rootstock fees, the number of active addresses, transaction volumes, liquidity, and application usage remain weak, merged mining will remain just an additional opportunity for miners and a security bonus for users.
But if these figures start to grow along with high mining pool participation, the situation will change. Then it will be possible to say that bitcoin’s hashrate really helps miners earn from a full-fledged smart contract economy on Rootstock, secured through merged mining.
For now, the 84.01% figure gives BTCFi a stronger infrastructure argument. It shows that bitcoin’s smart contract layer can operate on top of a huge portion of the network’s mining power, while miners continue to focus on their main business.
But the main task ahead is to turn this security figure into enough activity and fees for it to really matter to miners and BTC holders, and not just remain a nice hashrate statistic.
