On Friday, the Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty decreased to 146.7 trillion, with the network hashrate—the total computing power dedicated to securing the decentralized protocol—reaching an all-time high of over 1.2 trillion hashes per second.
The BTC mining difficulty has dropped by around 2.7% from the previous all-time high of over 150.8 trillion achieved during the last adjustment period, according to CoinWarz.
Nevertheless, the network hashrate reached an all-time high on Tuesday and remains elevated above 1.2 trillion, albeit with a slight decline from that day’s peak, as shown by data from CryptoQuant. CoinWarz also predicts:
“The next difficulty adjustment is projected for Oct 29, 2025, at 08:14:49 AM UTC, raising the Bitcoin mining difficulty from 146.72 T to 156.92 T, occurring in 1,474 blocks.”
The increasing hashrate indicates that miners will need to invest more computing resources to add blocks to the Bitcoin ledger, further stressing miners who are already contending with trade policies, reduced block rewards, and heightened competition.
Related: Bitdeer intensifies focus on Bitcoin self-mining as rig demand softens
Miners exploring alternative revenue sources, but potential supply chain issues arise
Mining companies are actively seeking alternative revenue sources to mitigate the shortfalls from mining digital currencies, including branching out into AI data centers and other forms of high-performance computing.
Core Scientific, Hut 8, and IREN have reallocated resources towards AI data centers in 2024 to enhance profits and lessen dependency on revenue from crypto mining.
However, this shift towards AI data centers has caused friction between miners and AI infrastructure providers, as both energy-intensive sectors vie for access to low-cost energy resources for their operations.
Despite the addition of new income avenues, the mining sector continues to face regulatory hurdles and ongoing supply chain challenges, the latter exacerbated by former US President Donald Trump’s broad trade tariffs.
Tariffs raise the costs of obtaining mining hardware in regions affected by those tariffs, placing miners in those areas at a competitive disadvantage compared to miners who can procure rigs without the added tariff expenses.
Moreover, should trade tensions between the US and China escalate, export restrictions on computer processors, chips, and other electronics might complicate hardware acquisition further.
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