The Bitcoin (BTC) network mining difficulty, the relative computational challenge of adding a brand new block to the blockchain decentralized ledger, fell barely to 146.4 trillion on Thursday in the primary difficulty adjustment of 2026.
“The next Bitcoin difficulty adjustment is predicted to occur on January 22, 2026 at 04:08:12 UTC, increasing the Bitcoin mining difficulty from 146.47T to 148.20T,” in response to CoinWarz.
The average block time on the time of writing is 9.88 minutes, barely below the ten minute goal, meaning the following difficulty adjustment can be increased barely to higher align with the goal block time.
The difficulty of Bitcoin network mining. Source: CryptoQuant
Mining difficulty reached latest all-time highs in 2025, with the ultimate adjustment of the 12 months increasing the issue barely. But despite the slight increase, the issue level remained well below the all-time high of 155.9 trillion recorded in November.
The increasing difficulty means increased competition for mining blocks on the network and poses greater challenges to the mining industry, which suffered from macroeconomic, regulatory and financial headwinds in 2025.
The 12 months 2025 was the “hardest margin environment” ever for Bitcoin miners
Bitcoin miners experienced one of the crucial difficult profitability environments ever as profit margins dwindled attributable to the April 2024 halving, which reduced the block subsidy by 50%, and macroeconomic developments.
The crypto market downturn that began in November put additional pressure on miners and mining firms.
The miner hash price, a key metric for miner profitability that measures expected revenue per unit of computing power spent on mining blocks, fell below breakeven in November 2025.
Miner hash price over a period of 1 12 months. Source: Hashrate Index
$40 per petahash second per day is the worth at which miners must determine whether to shut down their rigs or proceed mining blocks. In November, this indicator fell below $35 – a multi-year low.
The tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump also burdened Bitcoin miners and raised fears of bottlenecks in the availability chain.
A pointy downturn within the crypto market triggered by a flash crash in October sent BTC prices down over 30% in November, when BTC hit a low just above $80,000.
Although Bitcoin prices have increased since then, they’re still well below the all-time high of over $125,000 reached in October.
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