Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Grows as Hashrate Reaches Seven-month High
BITmarkets Team
Oct 23, 2026
The recovery suggests that other mining operators are adding computing capacity to the network, offsetting some of the reductions associated with the industry's growing focus on AI infrastructure. According to the latest Miner Weekly newsletter from BlocksBridge Consulting, Bitcoin's seven-day average hashrate has climbed above 1 zettahash per second (ZH/s), equivalent to 1,000 exahashes per second (EH/s). This represents its highest level since March 3.
Bitcoin hashrate rebounds as mining difficulty increases
Hashrate measures the total computing power used to secure the Bitcoin network and process transactions. Its recent recovery indicates that competition among Bitcoin miners remains intense, even as some of the industry's largest companies reduce their cryptocurrency mining operations to pursue AI-related opportunities.
Bitcoin's mining difficulty increased by 5.92% on Oct. 16, with BlocksBridge forecasting another adjustment of approximately 5.16%. If the projection materializes, mining difficulty will have risen by roughly 11.4% across two consecutive adjustments, making it increasingly challenging for operators to earn Bitcoin rewards with the same amount of computing power.
“That’s hardly the breathing room remaining miners might have expected from the AI migration,” BlocksBridge wrote, referring to the continued competitive pressure on companies that remain focused on Bitcoin mining.
AI expansion reduces public mining companies' Bitcoin capacity
The cryptocurrency mining industry's transition toward AI and high-performance computing has already resulted in significant changes to its operations. BlocksBridge previously reported that publicly traded Bitcoin miners experienced a 23% decline in realized hashrate as companies increasingly allocated infrastructure and resources to alternative computing services.
During the same period, these companies recorded a 52% quarterly increase in reported revenue from AI and high-performance computing activities. The research firm estimated that the mining capacity displaced by this transition represented approximately $1.5 billion worth of mining equipment.
However, despite the reduction in computing power among major publicly traded operators, Bitcoin's overall network hashrate has continued recovering. This suggests that mining equipment removed from larger operations may be finding new uses elsewhere in the industry, although the precise sources of the additional network capacity remain uncertain.
Smaller Bitcoin miners could be replacing lost computing power
BlocksBridge suggested that smaller and mid-sized mining companies may be contributing to the recovery by purchasing secondhand equipment from larger operators. The firm highlighted Sazmining, which offers used Antminer S21 XP mining machines that customers can deploy through hosting facilities in Paraguay and Texas.
For operators with access to relatively inexpensive electricity, purchasing previously used mining hardware may provide a more cost-effective way to expand operations than acquiring new machines. This could allow equipment displaced by larger companies' AI infrastructure investments to remain active on the Bitcoin network under different ownership.
However, BlocksBridge acknowledged that it remains unclear how much of the secondhand equipment originated from publicly traded miners or what proportion has actually returned to active mining operations. Meanwhile, some cryptocurrency market observers interpret rising network computing power as an “indirect bullish signal” for Bitcoin, particularly when it reflects continued investment in mining infrastructure.
CryptoQuant founder and CEO Ki Young Ju recently supported this interpretation in a post on X, writing that “higher hashrate means stronger security and better fundamentals as a store of value.” Although higher hashrate can indicate stronger network security, the latest figures also suggest that Bitcoin miners may face continued pressure on profitability as competition and mining difficulty increase.
Sources:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-mining-difficulty-hashrate-recovery-ai-shift
https://www.minerweekly.com/p/bitcoin-hashrate-shrug-off-ai-unplug
