Bitcoin mining difficulty has increased by 0.41% to reach 111.45 Trillion (T). This marks the eighth consecutive increase in the difficulty adjustment level. Mining difficulty describes how challenging it can be for Bitcoin miners to solve the cryptographic puzzles needed to mine the flagship asset. It adjusts after every 2,016 blocks, approximately every two weeks, to ensure that the average block mining period stays around 10 minutes. Bitcoin Mining Difficulty (Source: CoinWarz) However, the increase in mining difficulty is unsurprising given the increase in Bitcoin Hashrate over the last few months. Hashrate refers to the amount of computing power on the Bitcoin network, and its increase usually contributes to positive adjustments in mining difficulty. According to data from Coinwarz, Bitcoin hashrate is now at 847 exahash per second (EH/s). Although this is slightly far off from the peak of 955 EH/s on January 2, 2025, it is still very high and highlights the heavy competition among miners. What does BTC Difficulty mean for its price? With Bitcoin mining difficulty increasing, Crypto analyst James Van Straten has noted that this is not the first time that Bitcoin mining difficulty will increase consecutively for such a lengthy period. In the past, there were nine consecutive positive adjustments in 2021 and 17 consecutive increases in 2018. The nine positive adjustments in 2021 coincided with the bull run, with the ninth one marking the market top, and this was when Bitcoin hit $69,000. There are now concerns that the new increase could signal that BTC is near its top for this cycle, particularly given how the flagship asset price has performed over the last few weeks. However, there is not enough historical data to justify such a theory. The longest period of consecutive positive adjustments happened in 2018, during a bear market. At the time, Bitcoin saw 17 positive adjustments from its cycle top in December 2017, when it was worth $20,000, to June 2018, when it had fallen to around $6,000. Even Van Straten admits that November 2021 was the last time a positive adjustment marked a cycle top, and consecutive positive adjustments can either mark a cycle top or bottom. Still, many believe we are not close to the top yet and expect Bitcoin to rip higher in 2025. Miners remain profitable despite the increase in difficulty Meanwhile, the increasing difficulty has not significantly impacted miners’ profitability. According to Bitinfocharts data, miners are still profitable at around $0.048 per day for one Terahash per second (TH/s). ASIC Miner Value also shows that most machines remain profitable for Bitcoin miners. The profitability is likely because of the price of BTC. Despite falling over 8% in the last seven days, Bitcoin remains over $90,000. Nevertheless, the increasing difficulty of mining could pose a problem for miners, especially if BTC continues to fall in value. This already highlights Bitcoin miners’ struggles, adding to several pressures, including high energy costs, increasing competition, and reduced mining rewards. This explains why many Bitcoin miners have opted for a new and more stable revenue stream in the form of hosting high-performance computers (HPCs) for AI developers to offset their dependence on BTC. Interestingly, many are also joining the holders, choosing to keep their BTC instead of selling it for cash, as they tend to do in the past. Collectively, they now hold over 92,000 BTC; some, like Marathon Digital, even bought BTC. From Zero to Web3 Pro: Your 90-Day Career Launch Plan
