Bitcoin mining difficulty rises 5.92% to 140.58T as hashrate tops 1 ZH/s
The Oct. 16 adjustment was the third-largest increase of 2026 and lifted difficulty to its highest level since March, while hashprice slipped to $36.75 per PH/s per day.
MININGBITCOIN
Daniel Hartley
10/16/20261 min read
Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 5.92% from 132.72 trillion to 140.58 trillion at block height 971,712 on October 16, Bitcoin.com News reported. It was the third-largest increase of 2026 and the highest reading since March 5. The retarget was the 10th increase among 21 difficulty adjustments so far this year.
The move followed a rise in network hashrate above 1,000 EH/s, or one zettahash per second. At the time of the report, hashrate stood at about 1,024.96 EH/s, and blocks were arriving roughly every 8 minutes 45 seconds, faster than the 10-minute target. Difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks to bring block times back toward that target.
Higher difficulty reduces miner revenue per unit of computing power. Hashprice, which rose above $41 per PH/s per day twice in the prior 30 days, including on October 2, fell to $36.75 by October 16. An early estimate pointed to a further 14.24% increase around October 28, though Bitcoin.com News noted the figure could change substantially because only a few dozen blocks of the new epoch had been mined.
Source: Bitcoin.com News, Pickaxe.