Bitcoin’s mining difficulty rose 5.54% on Oct. 29 to a record 148.36 trillion, increasing competition among miners even as the network’s computing power recovered sharply. The adjustment came as daily mining revenue moved toward a three-month low, leaving some older machines unable to cover their electricity costs.
Network computing power rebounds
Data from Nodewitness showed that Bitcoin’s difficulty increased from 140.58 trillion to 148.36 trillion. It followed a 5.92% increase on Oct. 16, meaning the two adjustments in October have significantly raised the amount of computing work required to produce new blocks.
Mining difficulty is Bitcoin’s automatic mechanism for keeping block production close to an average of 10 minutes. The network reviews the setting every 2,016 blocks, or roughly every two weeks. When miners collectively add computing power and blocks are found more quickly, the protocol raises difficulty. When computing power falls, difficulty can decline.
The latest increase reflects a recovery in Bitcoin’s hashrate, the total computing power being used to secure the network and compete for block rewards. According to CryptoSlate, the network’s 14-day average hashrate fell 23% between its October 2025 peak and February 2026, its steepest decline since China’s 2021 mining ban. Severe winter weather disrupted some operations, while concerns also grew that mining companies would redirect equipment and investment toward artificial-intelligence infrastructure.
The network weakened again through July, but that direction changed from July 17 onward. Jamie Coutts, chief crypto analyst at Real Vision, said hashrate rose 21% over the following 102 days, adding about 185 exahashes per second (EH/s). The recovery brought computing power to within 6% of its previous record. Look Into Bitcoin data also placed network hashrate at its highest level in seven months.
The rebound is notable because several publicly traded mining companies have been expanding into high-performance computing and AI data centers. Those businesses can offer longer-term infrastructure contracts and more predictable revenue than Bitcoin mining. Even so, the wider network recovery indicates that capacity added by other operators has more than offset some equipment being redirected or retired.
Higher difficulty squeezes mining economics
A stronger network improves Bitcoin’s resilience because more computing power raises the cost of attempting to attack it. It also shows that some operators continue to deploy resources despite challenging economics. For individual miners, however, the same recovery means more machines are competing for essentially the same block rewards.
The Oct. 29 adjustment alone is expected to reduce Bitcoin earnings per unchanged unit of computing power by about 5.24%, assuming transaction fees and other conditions stay the same. Combined with the Oct. 16 increase, the estimated reduction reaches approximately 10.5%.
The financial pressure is visible in hashprice, a measure of expected daily mining revenue for each petahash per second (PH/s) of computing capacity. Startmining data put hashprice at about $33 per PH/s per day, its lowest level since August. The metric averaged $40 in September, when Bitcoin’s difficulty was lower.
That decline affects revenue before miners pay for electricity, maintenance, hosting and financing. The burden is greatest for older or less efficient machines. At a gross hashprice of $33.35, a machine using 25 joules per terahash would generate approximately $32.68 per day for each PH/s after a 2% mining-pool fee. At an electricity price of 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, its daily power cost would be $36, creating a $3.32 loss before other operating expenses.
A more efficient machine rated at 20 J/TH would use $28.80 of electricity under the same assumptions, leaving a modest surplus before other costs. For equipment operating at 25 J/TH, electricity would need to cost about 5.45 cents per kilowatt-hour or less merely to cover power consumption at the current hashprice.
The figures show why the hashrate recovery is producing different outcomes across the industry. Operators with newer equipment and cheaper electricity can remain viable, while those relying on older machines or higher-cost power face a widening gap. Adding capacity strengthens Bitcoin’s network, but it also intensifies the competition for rewards that finance the mining business.
Moneyiar market picture
Moneyiar market data recorded Bitcoin at $80,430.51 at 22:39 on Oct. 25, 2026, with a 24-hour change of -0.08% and a seven-day change of -1.32%.
The same Moneyiar data showed Monad at $0.0215496181, down 0.49% over 24 hours and up 2.33% over seven days; Nexus at $0.0000006151, up 1.61% in 24 hours and down 13.97% over seven days; and Loaded Lions at $0.0011817703, down 2.39% over 24 hours and 3.06% over seven days. These market figures are snapshots at the stated times and do not alter the mining-cost calculations above.
