Bitcoin mining difficulty rises 5.54% to 148.36T as hashprice nears $33
Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 5.54% to 148.36 trillion on Oct. 29, pushing hashprice to about $33 per PH/s per day, its lowest level since August.
MININGBITCOINNEWS
Daniel Hartley
10/30/20261 min read
Bitcoin's mining difficulty rose 5.54% on Thursday, Oct. 29, to about 148.36 trillion, the second sizeable increase in two weeks, according to figures reported by TokenPost and CryptoSlate. The adjustment took effect at block 973,728 at 19:14 UTC.
The move follows a 5.92% rise on Oct. 16 that lifted difficulty to 140.58 trillion. Earlier projections had pointed to a jump of as much as 6.44%, so the final change came in somewhat below expectations. The network recalibrates difficulty every 2,016 blocks to keep average block times near 10 minutes.
The higher bar is squeezing revenue. Hashprice, the estimated daily income per petahash of computing power, stood at roughly $33 per PH/s on Oct. 30, its weakest level since August, according to Startmining data cited by CryptoSlate. September had averaged about $40. CryptoSlate estimates that the two October adjustments together cut expected earnings for an unchanged fleet by around 10.5%.
Thin margins for older machines
Less efficient hardware feels the pressure first. With electricity at 6 cents per kilowatt-hour, a fleet running at 25 joules per terahash spends about $36 a day per PH/s on power, slightly more than it earns after a 2% pool fee, according to models published by TokenPost and CryptoSlate. Machines at 20 J/TH still leave a small surplus, while break-even power for 25 J/TH units sits near 5.4 cents.
Hashrate has kept climbing even as several listed miners shift capacity toward AI and high-performance computing. Real Vision analyst Jamie Coutts noted that network hashrate has risen about 21% since mid-July, adding roughly 185 EH/s and returning to within 6% of its record.
The timing adds pressure. Bitcoin briefly fell below $77,000 this week after the Binance hack unsettled markets, lowering the dollar value of each block. The subsidy remains 3.125 BTC plus fees, and the next adjustment is due in roughly two weeks.
Source: TokenPost, CryptoSlate, Startmining, crypto.news