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Bitcoin Mining Hits Toughest Level Yet While Hashprice Slides
A soaring hash rate has pushed difficulty to 150.84T, leaving miners facing shrinking profitability.
Updated Oct 2, 2025, 12:48 p.m. Published Oct 2, 2025, 9:28 a.m.
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What to know:
- Bitcoin’s hash rate has climbed above 1.05 ZH/s, driving the seventh straight difficulty increase.
- Hashprice hovers below $50 per petahash despite Bitcoin’s price rebound, as low fees and high difficulty weigh on miners.
Bitcoin’s mining difficulty climbed 5% to a record 150.84 trillion on Wednesday, marking the seventh straight upward adjustment, according to Glassnode.
Difficulty, which resets every 2016 blocks (approximately every two weeks), measures how challenging it is for miners to find new blocks and maintains the average block time at around 10 minutes.
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The increase reflects continued growth in the network’s hash rate, now above one zettahash at 1.05 ZH/s. A higher hash rate signals more machines competing to secure the network, boosting security while raising the bar for profitability.
That pressure is showing up in hashprice, miner revenue per unit of hashrate ,which has slipped under $50 per petahash per second, Luxor data shows.
The metric briefly touched $52 when bitcoin traded above $118,000 earlier this summer, but has since drifted lower as difficulty rose and prices softened.
For miner margins to improve, one of three levers would need to move: higher fees, which remain at multi-year lows, a rebound in bitcoin’s price, or a slowdown in network hash rate.
Despite record difficulty and falling hashprice, mining stocks have rallied alongside bitcoin’s surge above $118,500, with Cipher Mining (CIFR) up more than 51% over the past month, Bit Digital (BTBT) gaining 25%, and Marathon Digital (MARA) climbing nearly 16%
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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.
What to know:
- KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
- This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
- Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
- Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
- Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.
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Key bitcoin price levels to watch as downward pressure builds
As bitcoin remains in a downtrend, several technical and onchain levels stand out as critical areas of support.
What to know:
- The 100-week moving average at $87,145 remains the main line of defense.
- Below this, the cost basis of U.S. spot bitcoin ETF buyers at $84,099 has provided support during recent consolidation.
- A sustained break below $80,000 would likely open the door to a revisit of the April 2025 low near $76,000.
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