Bitcoin Network Mining Difficulty Sees Largest Percentage Increase Since 2021, Even As Crypto Market Weakness Persists ⋆ ZyCrypto

Bitcoin mining difficulty, a measure of how computationally hard it is for miners to find a new block on the leading blockchain, has risen 14.7% to 144.4 trillion in the latest adjustment. This represents the largest absolute increase since 2021, when the China mining prohibition caused major disruption, following a 22% rise as the network recovered.

Bitcoin Difficulty Surges

The adjustment occurred at block height 937,440, according to Bitcoin network explorer Mempool, reversing the previous epoch’s steep 11% drop.

Mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks — roughly every two weeks — to keep block production around one every 10 minutes, regardless of fluctuations in the network’s hashrate.

Data from Clark Moody’s dashboard shows that blocks were mined at an average of 8 minutes and 47 seconds during the most recent epoch — well below the 10-minute target — triggering the upward difficulty adjustment. Over the same period, the network’s hashrate climbed from roughly 884 EH/s to 1,030 EH/s, according to Mempool, indicating a significant boost in active mining capacity.

Hash rate is the total computational power of all miners that secures the Bitcoin blockchain.

How Difficulty Adjustment Works

In October, as Bitcoin hit a record high of $126,080, the network’s hashrate peaked at 1.1 zettahashes per second (ZH/s). By February, with prices threatening a $60,000 breakdown, the hashrate fell to 826 exahashes per second (EH/s). Since then, the hashrate has bounced back to 1 ZH/s, while Bitcoin’s price has recovered to roughly $66,893. However, the apex crypto remains 46.8% down from the October peak.

Mining activity took its biggest hit since late 2021 when a severe winter storm in the U.S. forced several major operators to scale back operations. As weather conditions improved, miners resumed operations, boosting the hashrate and reversing the slowdown in block production.

As additional computing power is added to the Bitcoin network, mining difficulty increases to match, keeping block production close to the protocol’s 10-minute target. Conversely, if computing power declines, difficulty adjusts downward to maintain a steady pace of roughly one block every 10 minutes.

The latest difficulty adjustment added about 18.5 trillion, the largest absolute increase on record. Mempool developer “Mononaut” highlighted the swing, saying, “The last two adjustments erased 15.8T from the mining difficulty, and then immediately added 18.5T back on,” illustrating the scale of the rebound. For perspective, he noted, “It took the entire Bitcoin network over 11 years to reach 15T difficulty in total.”