Bitcoin Mining Difficulty Surges 15% to 144.4T in Largest Jump Since 2021

Bitcoin mining difficulty rose 15% to 144.4T, the largest increase since 2021, after a prior 12% drop, Odaily Planet Daily reports. Network hashrate recovered from 826 EH/s to 1 ZH/s, while hashprice—miners' daily revenue per unit of hashrate—hovers near a multiyear low of about $23.9/PH/s. Bitcoin retreated from a record high of roughly $126,500 to $60,000 and has since rebounded to around $67,000. Some listed mining firms are shifting resources toward AI, with Bitfarms announcing a rebrand to emphasize AI infrastructure and activist investor Starboard pushing Riot Platforms to expand its AI data center operations.