Bitcoin Hashrate Climbs Back Above 1 ZH/s as Difficulty Rebounds

what happened

Hashrate Index reports that Bitcoin's difficulty adjustment on October 16 came in at +5.92%, lifting network difficulty to 140.58T. That level sits above 139.70T, the threshold equivalent to a 1 ZH/s network hashrate. It ended a streak of fifteen consecutive adjustments below that mark, a run that stretched back to March 20.

The following adjustment on October 29 added another 5.54%, taking difficulty to 148.36T. The seven-day average hashrate moved above 1,000 EH/s on October 11, the first time since June 1, and has stayed there since. Difficulty remains roughly 5% below its record of 155.97T, set on October 29, 2025.

The recovery came after a weak stretch. Bitcoin's slide of about 36% from its October 6, 2025 peak, a late-January cold snap that knocked around 200 EH/s offline, and Texas's summer 4CP season all pulled hashrate lower. Luxor's Hashrate Forward Market now implies difficulty will hold near current levels through year-end, with 1,056 EH/s expected for November.

why it matters

For miners, the picture is less rosy than the hashrate headline suggests. After the October 29 adjustment, hashprice fell to about $34 per PH/s per day, against $46 at the all-time hashrate high, because computing capacity returned faster than Bitcoin's price. Bitcoin itself trades near $80,150, still 36% below its peak. Hashrate Index notes that the capacity that came back is cheaper to produce than the capacity that left, which matters for fleet economics and energy costs.

market impact

Bitcoin miners: hashrate growth outpacing price pushes hashprice toward $34, pressuring revenue

• ▼Hashprice (miner revenue per hash) pressure down — hashing power returned faster than Bitcoin's price, cutting revenue per unit of capacity

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