Bitcoin Difficulty Jumps 15% to Push Hashprice Below $30/PH/s
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty has reset higher, tightening margins again for miners that had briefly benefited from storm-related disruptions.
The network’s latest difficulty adjustment rose by 14.7% on Thursday, reversing the recent “ease” that followed a cold-weather-driven drop in North American hashrate.
The move reflects a snapback in block production as operators brought machines back online after weather curtailments and outages, pushing the network back toward (and in this case beyond) its 10-minute block-time target ahead of the retarget.
The greater difficulty immediately compresses revenue per unit of computing power. Hashprice — a commonly used proxy for miner revenue per PH/s per day — has slipped back below $30/PH/s/day, according to Hashrate Index, after hovering in the low-$30s prior to the adjustment.
The squeeze matters at these levels because many operators are near cash-cost break-even even before corporate overhead and financing costs.
Some large public miners have previously disclosed all-in cash mining costs that sit around the low-$30/PH/s range, meaning a return to sub-$30 hashprice can quickly reintroduce operational pressure and raise the risk of further curtailments or fleet shutoffs among higher-cost miners.
