Bitcoin Difficulty’s Long Wait Below Its Record
Bitcoin mining difficulty has remained below its October 2025 all-time high for 374 days as of Nov. 7, 2026, according to Bitcoin.com News. The duration is the longest period in Bitcoin’s history without difficulty returning above a previous record.
The milestone focuses attention on a distinction that can be obscured by hashrate readings: mining activity has recovered in some measures, but the network’s difficulty adjustments have not yet exceeded the level reached last year.
What happened
Bitcoin.com News reported that difficulty reached its record of 155.97 trillion at block 921,312 on Oct. 29, 2025. As of Nov. 7, 2026, every subsequent adjustment had remained below that level.
Economist and author Saifedean Ammous highlighted the 374-day stretch on Saturday, according to Bitcoin.com News. He said difficulty had been below its prior high for more than a year and contrasted the current period with earlier major disruptions to Bitcoin mining.
The previous longest wait for a new difficulty high lasted 364 days, from a peak on Aug. 1, 2011 to a new high on July 30, 2012, Bitcoin.com News reported. The outlet also said the gap associated with China’s 2021 mining ban lasted about 253 days, from May 13, 2021 to January.
There have nonetheless been signs of recovery from the year’s lower levels. BeInCrypto reported that difficulty bottomed at 124.93T in mid-June 2026 after a 10.09% reduction, the largest cut of the year. That low was about 20% below the prior peak, according to BeInCrypto.
By Oct. 16, difficulty had risen 5.92% to 140.58 trillion at block 971,712, CryptoWatchDesk reported. Its reported seven-day hashrate average was about 1,065 EH/s in the week to Oct. 24, placing that measure back above 1,000 EH/s, or 1 ZH/s.
Why it matters
Difficulty is a central measure of the computational conditions miners face when producing Bitcoin blocks. A prolonged period below a record does not mean mining activity stopped, but it indicates that the network’s difficulty adjustments have not moved beyond the level set in late October 2025.
That makes the 374-day span notable because it exceeds the historical comparisons identified by Bitcoin.com News. The earlier gaps followed events commonly associated with severe stress in Bitcoin’s mining economy, including the 2011 market decline and the 2021 China mining ban.
The current record gap also shows why difficulty and hashrate should not be treated as interchangeable snapshots. CryptoWatchDesk’s late-October hashrate reading showed a seven-day average above 1 ZH/s, while the difficulty level it reported remained below the 155.97 trillion peak cited by Bitcoin.com News.
For miners, difficulty changes affect the competitive environment for finding blocks. The record has therefore become a useful marker for assessing whether aggregate mining power has expanded beyond its previous high, rather than simply whether hashrate has recovered from a lower point.
Background and context
Bitcoin difficulty adjusts every 2,016 blocks, roughly every two weeks, to keep block production close to one block every 10 minutes. This adjustment process means difficulty responds periodically rather than continuously to changes in the computing power directed at mining.
As of Nov. 7, 2026, the 374-day stretch without a new difficulty record indicates that net mining power had not expanded beyond the October 2025 peak, even though the seven-day hashrate measure had returned above 1 ZH/s in late October.
The reported record date requires some care. Bitcoin.com News identified Oct. 29, 2025 as the date of the 155.97 trillion peak, while some summaries have rounded the peak to November 2025. The historical comparison in this case uses the Oct. 29 date and the block-height record cited by Bitcoin.com News.
The difficulty streak is also separate from a different measure of mining activity. The 374-day figure should not be confused with a 316-day hashrate-below-peak streak that was reported in August. Difficulty is based on periodic adjustments, while hashrate readings can be presented across shorter measurement windows.
What to watch
The next difficulty adjustments will show whether the late-October increase reported by CryptoWatchDesk continues toward, reaches or remains below the 155.97 trillion record cited by Bitcoin.com News.
It will also be important to compare later hashrate readings with difficulty changes. A hashrate average above 1 ZH/s does not by itself establish that difficulty has set a new record, as the late-October figures illustrate.
Finally, observers can watch how outlets date the prior peak when tracking the duration of the streak. Bitcoin.com News uses Oct. 29, 2025, while other summaries round the date to November 2025, which can affect how a day-count comparison is presented.
