Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Drops for the First Time in Months
Date: 2025-10-16 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
On October 16, Bitcoin mining difficulty declined for the first time since June, falling by 2.73% after the latest update. Meanwhile, network computing power reached a new all-time high, indicating continued growth in miner activity.
Network difficulty had been steadily increasing over the previous three months, and by the end of September, it had exceeded 150 T for the first time, representing a nearly 70% increase year-over-year. According to Cloverpool, the difficulty dropped to 146.72 T on Thursday morning. This means that adding a new block to the blockchain now requires calculating approximately 146 trillion hashes, for which a miner receives a reward of 3.125 BTC—approximately $346,000 at the current exchange rate.
Interestingly, the difficulty drop coincided with a record-breaking network hashrate. The total hashrate of all mining rigs reached 1.28 Zh/s for the first time, and the average over the past three days has remained around 1.10 Zh/s. This indicates that new computing power continues to enter the system, despite a slight decline in profitability in previous months.
Following the difficulty reduction, profitability, as reflected in the Bitcoin Hashprice Index, increased. This index measures the income a miner receives using one petahash of computing power per day. Following the recent difficulty recalculation, the index value increased from $46.5 to $48.
Nevertheless, the key factor influencing this indicator remains the price of Bitcoin. Just ten days ago, Bitcoin was trading at around $125,000, and at that time, despite the network's record-high difficulty, the Hashprice Index reached $52.7. Thus, even with the difficulty reduction, mining profitability is directly dependent on the market price of Bitcoin.
Experts note that the current difficulty decline may be temporary and due to uneven equipment loads or localized shutdowns of mining farms. However, if the BTC price remains high, mining profitability may improve, supporting interest in mining even if difficulty resumes rising in the coming weeks.
