Bitcoin’s mining difficulty dropped 11.16% on Feb. 7, the sharpest decline since July 3, 2021. That pullback may be short-lived. With miners returning and network hashrate recovering from storm-driven lows, the next adjustment is now shaping up as a sizable increase.
Winter storm hit miners and slowed block production
Over the past two weeks, Bitcoin’s hashrate, block intervals, miner revenue, and difficulty all moved sharply. The article links most of that disruption to an Arctic winter storm that swept across many U.S. states. During the worst of the freeze, miners reduced operations to ease pressure on regional power grids.
The impact showed up quickly. Network hashrate fell below 1,000 EH/s, the same as 1 ZH/s, and moved well under the 900 EH/s range, bottoming near 800 EH/s. As computing power dropped, block production slowed. During the difficulty epoch running from Jan. 22 to Feb. 7, block times stretched beyond 12 minutes for extended periods. The network then adjusted at block height 935424, cutting difficulty by 11.16%.
Hashrate has climbed back above 1 ZH/s
During the decline, hashprice — the value of one PH/s — also weakened as BTC fell to levels the report said had not been seen since 2024. That retreat did not last. After touching roughly 800 EH/s, Bitcoin’s computing power recovered and pushed back above the 1 ZH/s threshold.
Data from hashrateindex.com showed the network at about 1,030.21 EH/s as of Sunday at 9 a.m. Eastern time. Block production has also sped up. Over the last 24 hours, the average interval between blocks was about 8 minutes and 43 seconds, faster than Bitcoin’s 10-minute target. That pace is now feeding into the next difficulty calculation.
Next adjustment around Feb. 19 could swing sharply higher
The report projects the next difficulty change around Feb. 19, about four days from the point of measurement. If the current pace holds, early estimates suggest a possible 14.71% increase. That number could come down if block times slow, since roughly 34% of the 2,016-block epoch still remained to be mined at the time.
Even with that caveat, the coming move appears likely to be a notable increase, one that could fully erase the prior 11.16% cut. The recent swing shows how weather, price pressure, and miner economics can quickly affect Bitcoin’s network conditions, and how the protocol’s adjustment mechanism responds once hashrate returns.