Bitcoin mining difficulty rose to 148.2 trillion in the latest difficulty reset in 2025, the highest level since miners and hostile network forces began a full-scale conflict.
This is generally a significant jump since the protocol is set one leg higher until early 2026. Also increasing, and rising steadily through 2025, is the difficulty of inserting new blocks into the Bitcoin ledger.
It was well below 110 trillion at the beginning of this year, but has increased in parallel with the increase in demand for mining hash power. In competitive situations, some miners increased production to provide the necessary equipment to make a profit. The current level is about 35% above January's baseline, but still below October's peak of nearly 156 trillion.
The increase in difficulty reflects an overall increase in the computational power of the network. Analysts remain uncertain what this major shift means for Bitcoin, but it highlights both its resilience and the challenges miners face.
More complexity results in a more secure network, but it also comes at a lower profit margin, at the expense of smaller miners running less powerful machines.
Difficulty increases as hashing power increases
The difficulty of the Bitcoin network is directly proportional to the hashrate and automatically adjusts every two weeks (or more precisely every 2,016 blocks), with a new block being found approximately every 10 minutes.
Bitcoin mining difficulty increases when blocks are mined too fast and decreases when blocks are mined too slowly. In the last adjustment, the average time between blocks was about 9.95 minutes, which was slightly slower than my current pace. This acceleration has the effect of effectively increasing the difficulty level. Analysts predict that as hashing power continues to rise, difficulty could once again reach new highs and exceed 149 trillion, assuming the current situation continues until the next correction expected around January 8, 2026.
The network's hash rate, which measures the total computational power available to protect the network, continued to increase throughout most of 2025. It reached a high of over 1,150 EH/s in October, but then gradually declined in the second half of the year. Despite this slight drop, hashpower is still significantly higher than in January.
Large companies and miners operating on an industrial scale have driven this expansion thanks to the use of expensive ASIC equipment and cheap power supplies.
The difficulty level of Bitcoin increases or decreases depending on the mining power.
Difficulty acts as Bitcoin's only safety valve at the protocol level. Blocks cannot be added rapidly, which ensures predictable issuance and helps maintain network stability.
The mining challenge reschedules every 2,016 blocks, approximately every 10 minutes at the current hash rate. Bitcoin's decentralized consensus not only resists certain attacks, but also provides resilience, making the network more disaster-resistant.
Higher difficulty also means more power and computer power is required to unlock each block. This can put pressure on margins, and Bitcoin's volatile price movements make it increasingly difficult to support the network as power prices rise, making it a challenge to maintain network strength amid increased activity. The network stabilizes with slight vibrations.
