Mining difficulty has recently decreased, reducing the effort required to add new blocks to the Bitcoin blockchain. Although a drop in difficulty may offer some respite for miners, the Bitcoin network hit a new hashrate record on Tuesday, illustrating the network's ever-increasing computing power.
In brief
- The difficulty of Bitcoin mining fell by 2.7%, while the network hashrate reached a new all-time high, a sign of ever-increasing computing power.
- The next adjustment should raise the difficulty again, reducing the rewards for equal effort.
- Mining companies are diversifying into AI and high-performance computing to leverage their existing infrastructure.
Increase in hashrate despite the drop in difficulty
On Friday, bitcoin mining difficulty, which measures the complexity needed to add new blocks, fell about 2.7%, from over 150.8 trillion to 146.7 trillion. Despite this drop, the network's hashrate continued to grow, exceeding 1.2 trillion hashes per second and setting a new record.
This sustained progression shows that miners are investing ever more computing power to remain competitive. This puts more pressure on those already facing declining block rewards, high energy costs, and increased competition in the sector.
THE next Bitcoin mining difficulty adjustmentscheduled for October 29, 2025 at 08:14:49 UTC, is expected to increase it from 146.72 trillion to 156.92 trillion after mining 1,474 additional blocks. This increase will reduce the potential gains for the same calculation effort, particularly penalizing operations equipped with old or energy-expensive equipment.
Miners benefiting from recent equipment and access to cheap electricity will be less affected. Overall, this adjustment will strengthen competition between players while ensuring the security of the Bitcoin network.
Mining companies adapt with AI
Faced with declining rewards, companies are looking to diversify their revenues. Several of them, including Core Scientific, Hive Digital Technologies and Bitfarms, are now investing in data centers dedicated to AI and high-performance computing. They reuse their mining infrastructure to accommodate AI-related workloads, thereby expanding their business model.
This reorientation, however, creates new competition for access to electricity, with AI and mining activities both being very energy-intensive. Companies must therefore balance their consumption in order to preserve the profitability of their operations.
The industry also has to deal with commercial constraints. Tariffs imposed by the United States have increased the cost of mining equipment in certain regions, increasing pressure on the operators concerned. An escalation of tensions between Washington and Beijing could further complicate the supply of essential chips and components.
At the same time, bitcoin regained strength, returning above $110,000 after falling below $105,000 the previous week. It is now trading around $111,000, up more than 4% over 24 hours.
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