Bitcoin mining difficulty jumps 15%, posting record absolute increase as hashrate rebounds after US winter storm

Bitcoin mining difficulty adjusted upward by 14.7% to 144.4 trillion, representing the largest absolute increase ever recorded, following a rebound in network hashrate. This adjustment reversed the previous epoch's sharp 11% decline and was prompted because blocks were being found too quickly (average 8 minutes 47 seconds) due to the hashrate surging from 884 EH/s to 1,030 EH/s. The hashrate drop and subsequent recovery were attributed to a recent U.S. winter storm that forced many miners to temporarily shut down equipment to ease strain on local electricity grids, participating in demand-response programs. The absolute difficulty gain was roughly 18.5 trillion, surpassing all prior adjustments in raw terms. While this percentage increase is significant, it is smaller than percentage surges seen in Bitcoin's early years.

(Source：The Block)