Overview
- The protocol retarget set difficulty at about 144.40 trillion at block 937,524, marking one of the steepest accelerations since the 2021 cycle.
- Network hashrate is hovering near the 1 ZH/s threshold, recovering from an early‑February trough around 826 EH/s after U.S. weather outages.
- Miner hashprice sits at multi‑year lows near $23.9 per PH/s, pressuring profitability even as computing power returns to the network.
- Large, low‑cost operators continue to run aggressively and help sustain elevated hashrate, while some public miners shift capacity to AI and high‑performance computing.
- Higher difficulty strengthens network security yet heightens margin pressure for smaller or higher‑cost miners if bitcoin’s price does not keep pace.