Bitcoin mining difficulty has risen to 144.4 trillion (T), up 15%, the biggest percentage increase since 2021, when China’s mining ban led to a major disruption, which followed a 22% adjustment as the network stabilized.
Difficulty adjustments measure how difficult it is to mine a new block on the network. It recalibrates every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, to ensure that blocks continue to be produced around every 10 minutes, regardless of hash rate changes.
The adjustment follows a 12% drop in difficulty following a drop in the bitcoin hash rate, which is the total computational power that secures the network. Mining activity suffered the sharpest setback since late 2021 after a severe winter storm in the US forced several major operators to scale back operations.
In October, when bitcoin reached an all-time high of around $126,500, the hashrate also peaked at 1.1 zettahash per second (ZH/s). When prices fell to as low as $60,000 in February, the hashrate dropped to 826 exahashes per second (EH/s). Since then, the hash rate has returned to 1 ZH/s, while the price has risen to around $67,000.
At the same time, the hash price, the estimated daily earnings that miners earn per unit hashrate, at a multi-year low ($23.9 PH/s), squeezing profitability.
Despite these profitability pressures, large-scale operators with access to low-cost energy continue to mine aggressively. The United Arab Emirates, for example, is sitting on about $344 million in unrealized mining profits.
Well-capitalized entities that can mine efficiently help keep the hash rate elevated and resilient, even amid subdued bitcoin prices.
