Bitcoin difficulty jumps 15% largest increase since 2021, despite price slump

• Bitcoin mining difficulty rose to 144.4T, jumped 15%, the biggest percentage increase since 2021.
• Hashrate has recovered to 1 ZH/s from 826 EH/s, even as hashprice sits at multi year lows around $23.9 per PH/s.

Bitcoin mining difficulty has climbed to 144.4 trillion (T), up 15%, the largest percentage increase since 2021, when the China mining ban led to a major disruption, which followed a 22% upward adjustment as the network stabilized.

Difficulty adjustments measure how hard it is to mine a new block on the network. It recalibrates every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, to ensure blocks continue to be produced about every 10 minutes, regardless of changes in the hashrate.

The adjustment follows a 12% decline in difficulty after a drop in the bitcoin hashrate, which is the total computational power securing the network. Mining activity suffered its sharpest setback since late 2021 after a severe winter storm in the United States 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). As prices fell to as low as $60,000 in February, the hashrate dropped to 826 exahash per second (EH/s). Since then, the hashrate has recovered to 1 ZH/s while the price has rebounded to around $67,000.
At the same time, hashprice, the estimated daily revenue miners earn per unit of hashrate, remains at multi-year lows ($23.9 PH/s), squeezing profitability.

Despite this profitability pressure, large-scale operators with access to low-cost energy continue to mine aggressively. The United Arab Emirates, for example, is sitting on roughly $344 million in unrealized profit from its mining operations.

Well-capitalized entities that can mine efficiently are helping keep the hashrate elevated and resilient, even amid subdued bitcoin prices.

However, a major factor behind the recent decline in bitcoin’s hashrate is that several publicly listed mining companies are reallocating energy and computing capacity toward AI and high performance computing data centers. Bitfarms (BITF) recently announced a rebrand that removes the bitcoin identity from its name as it increases its focus on AI infrastructure. Meanwhile, activist investor Starboard has urged Riot Platforms (RIOT) to expand further into AI data center operations.

• Bitcoin wallets holding less than 0.1 BTC have increased their share of supply to the highest since mid-2024 even as the price holds around the mid-$60,000s.
• Larger holders with 10 to 10,000 bitcoins — the whales and sharks that typically drive major moves — have reduced their positions since the October peak.
• The divergence supports choppy, fragile price action because retail demand alone cannot sustain rallies when big wallets are distributing into every recovery.

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