Bitcoin mining difficulty has risen to 144.4T after a 15% upward adjustment, marking the largest single increase since 2021. The move came even as Bitcoin price action remained relatively soft, with the sharp recovery in network hash rate driving competition higher across the mining sector.
Difficulty adjustment reflects a fast rebound in hash rate
The Bitcoin network adjusts mining difficulty every 2,016 blocks, or roughly once every two weeks, to keep block production close to one block every 10 minutes. When more miners come online and total hash rate rises, difficulty increases to maintain that pace. When hash rate falls, difficulty is lowered. This latest jump points to a strong return of computing power over the past adjustment period.
The last time the network saw a move of similar scale was during the aftermath of China’s broad crackdown on Bitcoin mining in 2021. As miners relocated and hash rate gradually stabilized, difficulty recorded a sharp 22% upward revision.
From weather-driven disruption to a recovery near 1 ZH/s
The previous difficulty adjustment had moved in the opposite direction, dropping 12% after a sudden decline in hash rate. According to the source material, extreme winter storms in the United States forced several large mining firms to temporarily scale back operations, creating the toughest setback for mining activity since late 2021.
Data in the report shows that when Bitcoin climbed to an all-time high of about $126,500 last October, network hash rate also reached a peak of 1.1 ZH/s. As the price later slipped to around $60,000 in February this year, hash rate fell to 826 EH/s. With Bitcoin now rebounding to about $67,000, total hash rate has recovered quickly and returned to around 1 ZH/s, setting up the current difficulty surge.
Miner revenue remains weak despite the network rebound
Rising difficulty and stronger hash rate do not mean mining economics have improved at the same speed. Hashprice, the industry metric used to estimate expected daily revenue per unit of computing power, remains near multi-year lows at roughly $23.9 per PH/s. That leaves miners facing tighter margins even as the network becomes more competitive again.