A new analysis of Bitcoin’s global network suggests the cryptocurrency is far more resistant to physical internet disruptions than many assume. However, researchers caution that the system may still face serious risks if a small number of major hosting providers experience outages or targeted disruptions at the same time.
The findings come from a study that examined more than a decade of Bitcoin network data from 2014 to 2025. Researchers focused on how failures in internet infrastructure — especially submarine cables and cloud hosting providers — could affect the network’s global connectivity. Their analysis shows that while large-scale cable outages are unlikely to seriously damage the system, centralized hosting infrastructure could represent a more realistic point of vulnerability.
The study found that Bitcoin’s network is highly resilient to failures involving undersea internet cables. Based on modeling results, between 72% and 92% of the world’s submarine cables would need to fail at the same time before more than 10% of Bitcoin nodes become disconnected. Researchers say such a situation is extremely unlikely because the internet’s physical infrastructure is widely distributed and built with multiple redundant pathways. Historical incidents support this conclusion. For example, when several submarine cables were cut off the coast of West Africa in 2024, the event disrupted regional internet services but had only a minimal impact on the Bitcoin network.
However, the research highlights a more serious concern involving the concentration of Bitcoin nodes on a limited number of hosting providers and autonomous systems. According to the study, targeted disruptions affecting key hosting networks could disconnect a large portion of visible Bitcoin nodes far more efficiently than random infrastructure failures. In some scenarios, removing just 5% of routing capacity from major hosting providers could cause a similar level of network fragmentation as widespread cable outages. Major providers hosting Bitcoin nodes include Hetzner, OVHcloud, Comcast, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud. At the same time, the growing use of the Tor network is helping strengthen resilience. A majority of Bitcoin nodes now connect through Tor, which adds additional layers of routing and reduces the impact of public network disruptions. Researchers say the main concern is not weaknesses in Bitcoin’s cryptography or consensus system, but the concentration of supporting infrastructure. Experts believe that increasing geographic distribution and infrastructure diversity among Bitcoin nodes could further improve the network’s long-term stability as digital asset adoption grows.
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