Bitcoin network imposes a new resistance test on miners as difficulty surpasses 155.97 trillion. With a struggling hash rate, the mining industry is in a challenging phase. Diminished profitability and escalating energy costs may force some players to exit the game.
Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Jumps 6.31%: A Brutal Adjustment Redefining Miners’ Economic Equation
Bitcoin mining difficulty surged this week by 6.31%, reaching 155.97 trillion. This algorithmic adjustment, occurring every 2016 blocks, reflects the colossal power deployed by miners worldwide. Despite this increased pressure, the network hashrate remains above 1,100 EH/s, signaling the technical resilience of the ecosystem.
This difficulty increase is never insignificant. It mechanically reduces miners’ profit margins. Each exahash deployed must now work harder to validate a block and receive the current reward of 3.125 BTC, post-halving. The average time between blocks remains faithful to the 10-minute rhythm designed in the protocol, confirming that the adjustment is working as intended.
But the real warning signal comes from the hashprice. This metric, which measures daily revenue generated per terahash, is collapsing. With Bitcoin still hesitant and modest transaction fees, revenue per unit of power is rapidly diminishing.
When Economic Pressure Meets Energy Reality
The mining economic equation rests on three pillars: BTC price, mining difficulty, and electricity cost. Today, two of these variables are working against miners. Rising difficulty increases the energy consumption needed to produce each BTC, while declining hashprice reduces gross revenue. Miners equipped with older hardware, like certain Antminer S19 models or machines with efficiency above 30 J/TH, are dangerously approaching their break-even point. Only those with access to very cheap electricity, ideally below $0.05/kWh, can still maintain comfortable margins.
To survive, miners are deploying various strategies: Geographic diversification to access cheap renewable energy, long-term contracts to stabilize costs, cooling optimization, and uptime maximization. The most flexible operations shut down their machines during peak pricing periods and restart during off-peak hours (demand response), or sell their electrical capacity back to the grid to generate alternative revenue. Many also choose to accumulate BTC rather than selling immediately, betting on a future market rebound, though this carries risks for indebted operations.
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