Coinbase CEO Armstrong Says Hash Power Doesn't Determine Bitcoin Price on July 20

According to Bitcoin.com News, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on July 20 that hash power leaving Bitcoin does not determine its price, citing the protocol's difficulty adjustment mechanism. Armstrong rejected billionaire investor Chamath Palihapitiya's argument that miners may redirect energy to AI, noting that when miners go offline, the network automatically adjusts difficulty to maintain consistent block creation time.

The argument aligns with recent data: Bitcoin's difficulty fell 5% to 127.17 trillion on July 11 after hashrate dropped 7.9% to 908 EH/s over ten days. The reset boosted hashprice—miner revenue per unit of computing power—by 12.5% to $31.1 per PH/s, though still 37.2% below October 2025 levels.