Bitcoin (BTC) mining difficulty by 0.04 percent to 148.26 trillion on December 25.
The adjustment ended a three-month downtrend.
It marks the final difficulty change of 2025 after the network reached an all-time high of 155.97 trillion on October 29.
What Happened
Mining difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks to maintain Bitcoin's target of one block every 10 minutes.
The metric climbed 35 percent in 2025, rising from 109.8 trillion at year-start to 148.26 trillion currently.
Network hashrate similarly grew 34.5 percent over the same period. It peaked at 1,151.6 terahashes per second in October before declining to around 1,070 terahashes per second.
The October peak coincided with Bitcoin price hitting an all-time high near $124,000 on October 6. Price has since fallen roughly 30 percent to around $87,000.
Chinese authorities reportedly shut down mining operations in Xinjiang in mid-December. Rising winter energy costs in North America and lower Bitcoin prices also pressured miners.
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Why It Matters
Higher difficulty increases operational costs by requiring more computing power and energy per block.
The adjustment mechanism protects network decentralization by preventing any single miner from controlling block production.
Miners face mounting pressure as hashprice fell to around $38 per petahash per second. This represents roughly half the level seen after April's block reward halving.
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