84% of BTC hashrate secured Bitcoin DeFi in Q1, but miners saw little fee upside
CryptoSlate
In Q1, 84% of Bitcoin's hashrate secured Rootstock via merged mining, yet meaningful fee revenue for miners remains unproven.Summary
According to Rootstock's Q1 2026 report, 84.01% of Bitcoin's hashrate contributed to securing its network through merged mining. While this demonstrates a robust security foundation for Bitcoin DeFi (BTCFi), the report stops short of quantifying actual fee revenue for miners. Despite high participation from major mining pools like Foundry USA and AntPool, the economic activity on Rootstock, such as transaction volume and liquidity, remains modest compared to the security provided. The current state suggests that while merged mining offers miners valuable optionality, the challenge of converting this security into a significant, revenue-generating smart-contract economy remains.
(Source：CryptoSlate)